PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley softball team will travel west for the second consecutive week, making the third trip in program history to the state of New Mexico for the Troy Cox Classic Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Las Cruces, N.M.
The Braves played at the Lobo Classic in Albuquerque, N.M., in 2013 and will return to Las Cruces, N.M., for the first time since playing in the 2010 Troy Cox Classic hosted by New Mexico State. Bradley opens the weekend against Big 12 Conference foe Kansas, who joined the Braves at the Columbia Regional in last year's NCAA Tournament.
Bradley (1-4 overall) will take on the Jayhawks (5-0 overall) Friday at noon (CST) in the ninth meeting between the two teams. The Braves have won the last two matchups with KU and three of the last seven overall, but Kansas owns a 5-3 advantage in the all-time series.
Friday's action also includes a 2:30 p.m. (CST) contest against Weber State (22-25 in 2004), which will be the season opener for the Wildcats. Bradley won the only previous meeting with Weber State 5-3 at the 2010 Troy Cox Classic. The two teams will play again Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m.
Helping highlight the weekend will be a special coaching matchup Saturday night when Bradley faces tournament-host New Mexico State (3-2 overall) at 7 p.m. Former Bradley standout and volunteer assistant coach Kate Malveaux (Singler) is an assistant coach at New Mexico State after serving as a graduate assistant with the Aggies last season.
Kate, who played for Bradley in 2010 and 2011, married current Bradley Associate Head Coach Chris Malveaux in December and the pair will celebrate their first Valentine's Day as a married couple in opposite dugouts in Saturday's 7 p.m. game between the two programs.
The newlyweds were recently featured in a Peoria Journal Star story (http://www.pjstar.com/article/20150210/SPORTS/150219904) in addition to a story by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (https://nfca.org/index.php/front-page-news/6253-newlywed-coaches-playing-each-other-on-valentines-day).
Bradley concludes play at the Troy Cox Classic Sunday afternoon at noon with a rematch against New Mexico State. The Braves and Aggies have split two previous matchups, with NMSU claiming the last meeting in extra innings in El Paso, Texas, during the 2011 campaign.
BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats for all five games at the Troy Cox Classic.
The Braves are 5-5 all-time in the state of New Mexico, including a 3-2 record at the Troy Cox Classic. Junior Kendall Duffy (Naperville, Ill./Benet Academy), who is 7-for-14 at the plate this season, owns a .412 batting average with 10 RBI in her last 18 regular-season games and went 6-for-13 (.462) with three runs and three RBI in Bradley's last trip to the state of New Mexico in 2013.
After back-to-back weekends out west, Bradley will spend the next two weekends in Tennessee. The first of back-to-back trips to the Volunteer State features five games at the Tennessee State Invitational in Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 20-22. The Braves are slated to open the Tennessee State Invite Friday, Feb. 20 against St. Bonaventure at 11:15 a.m. (CST).
