PEORIA, Ill. -- After playing six of the last seven contests at home, Bradley Softball will open a five-game Missouri Valley Conference road swing with a three-game series at Northern Iowa.  The Braves and Panthers will play a noon doubleheader Friday and close out the set Saturday with a single at 11 a.m.
 
Bradley (19-20 overall, 5-7 MVC) will venture outside the state of Illinois for just the second time since opening MVC play at Southern Illinois March 18 & 19 with the only other games outside the Land of Lincoln March 25 & 26 at Evansville.  The trip to Cedar Falls, Iowa, marks the final road trip outside of Illinois during the regular-season schedule for the Braves.
 
Northern Iowa (20-15 overall, 8-4 MVC) enters the weekend in a four-way tie with Wichita State, Missouri State and Southern Illinois for fourth in the Valley standings, one game out of the lead after taking two of three games from SIU last weekend.  The weekend series against Bradley concludes a season-long 10-game home stand for the Panthers. 
 
BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats for all three games.  
 
Sophomore Julie Kestas turned in the strongest performance of her Bradley career Sunday against defending MVC regular-season champion Wichita State, tossing a one-hit shutout.  Kestas was one strike away from the first perfect game by a Bradley pitcher since Amy Elza in March 1994 and flirted with the first no hitter by a Brave since Ashley Birdsong in March 2007.  She settled for the one-hit shutout following a two-out, seventh-inning single by Madison Perrigan for the first complete game shutout of her career. Kestas is 3-2 with a 3.61 ERA in MVC play this spring.
 
The shutout of the Shockers marked the first time Wichita State had been shutout in 2017.  In fact, a Valley team had not blanked Wichita State since March 29, 2014 (Bradley).  Since the start of the 2013 season, the Shockers have been shutout just four times by a MVC team with the Braves owning three of the four shutouts during that stretch. 
 
Bradley has played a league-high 19 games against teams currently ranked in the top 100 of the latest NCAA RPI and continue a 12-game span against teams currently in the top 100 with the weekend series at #84 Northern Iowa.  The Braves played the 78th toughest non-conference schedule in the country through April 10. 
 
Sunday's 1-0 victory over Wichita State was Bradley's 19th of the year as the Braves surpassed their win total from the entire 2016 campaign.  Bradley has 17 road or neutral site victories for the first time since 2014 (21) and needs two road wins in the final eight road contests for the most regular-season victories away from home since 2004 (20). 
 
Senior Kelly Kapp collected four more hits last weekend against Wichita State and heads into the weekend tied with UNI's Jackie Paulus (1996-99) for 17th in MVC history with 216 career hits.  Kapp needs five hits to break into the top 15 in Valley history. 
 
Following the weekend trip to Cedar Falls, Iowa, Bradley will play a midweek doubleheader at I-74 rival Illinois State Wednesday, April 19 (5 p.m.), before closing the regular season with seven of the last 10 games at Petersen Hotels Field at the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex.