Bradley Braves (5-6-4) at Western Illinois Leathernecks (4-11-1)
Monday, Nov. 4, 2019 • 2:00 p.m. • Macomb, IL • Mackenzie Alumni Field
NON-CONFERENCE FINALE
• Both Bradley (Missouri Valley Conference) and Western Illinois (Summit League) will be playing their final non-conference game of the season when the local rivals meet Monday afternoon at Mackenzie Alumni Field.
• Although Bradley enjoyed a 4-2-1 record in October that pushed the Braves to as high as second in the MVC standings (currently third), the Braves are coming off a 5-0 loss Friday at Northern Kentucky that dropped them to 1-3-2 outside The Valley this season.
• Despite its overall record, Western Illinois rolls into Monday's game on a 5-match unbeaten (4-0-1) streak that has pulled the Leathernecks into second place in the Summit League standings.
• Both teams will close out the regular-season with conference matches Saturday.
SERIES HISTORY
• Monday's match will be the 30th in an all-time series that dates to Bradley's first season as a NCAA Division I program in 1987.
• The Braves own a 17-10-2 lead in the series, which began with a 5-0 Leathernecks victory Sept. 6, 1987 in Macomb.
• The teams have split the last six meetings, 2-2-2, since 2012.
• Monday's game will be the 15th meeting in Macomb, where Bradley owns a 9-3-2 record against the host Leathernecks.
• Despite the overall road success in the series, Bradley is winless (0-1-2) in its last three trips to Macomb.
• In his 24th year as Bradley head coach, Jim DeRose is 13-5-2 (.700) against Western Illinois.
HEAD COACH JIM DEROSE
• Jim DeRose (Northern Vermont-Johnson '89) is completing his 24th year as a collegiate head coach, all at Bradley.
• DeRose enters Monday's game as the second-winningest coach in Missouri Valley Conference history, sporting a 247-190-54 (.558) record in 491 career matches.
• DeRose's 247 wins represent 82.9 percent of the total wins in Bradley's 33-year history.
UP NEXT
• Bradley will close out the 2019 regular-season Saturday by hosting Evansville in a Missouri Valley Conference clash.
• The Braves (4-3-2, 14 points) will enter Saturday's game third in the MVC standings, just one point behind second-place Loyola Chicago (4-1-3, 15 points) and one ahead of fourth-place Drake (4-4-1, 13 points).
• Loyola Chicago visits first-place Missouri State Sunday afternoon (a LUC win would lock up a runner-up finish in The Valley race for the Ramblers, while a Missouri State result would keep Bradley's chances for a second-place finish alive).
• Western Illinois will visit Oral Roberts Saturday in a battle of the top two teams in the Summit League standings: ORU is 4-0-0 in the SL, followed by second-place WIU (3-1-0).
STANDINGS CLIMB
• Bradley's chase for a top two finish in the Missouri Valley Conference standings comes a year after the Braves finished last (seventh) in the MVC standings with a 1-5-0 league record.
• A potential 5-spot climb in the final league standings from one year to the next would be the best by any Valley team since Missouri State's worst-to-first climb (six spots) in the then 7-team league from 2012 to 2013.
• A 5-spot climb also would represent Bradley's biggest year-to-year rise since the 1998 Braves won the program's first MVC regular-season title the year after a last-place finish in 1997 in the then 8-team league (seven spots).
21
• With the 2-game non-conference road swing before Bradley's pivotal MVC finale Saturday against Evansville, Bradley started the trip by playing 21 players in Friday's 5-0 loss at Northern Kentucky.
• The Braves had used 19 players in the opening half, when they trailed just 1-0.
• Bradley's 10 substitutes Friday were the most used by the Braves in one game since going 12 deep in a 3-0 win against Purdue Fort Wayne Sept. 16, 2017 at Shea Stadium.
COMMON FOES
• Local rivals Bradley and Western Illinois have a lengthy list of common opponents in 2019.
• The teams have six common opponents this year, not counting WIU's Summilt League rival Omaha, which was scheduled to host the Braves Oct. 15 before Bradley's travel issues from Evansville to Omaha forced the cancellation of the game.
• Bradley is 2-5-1 against the six common opponents; Western Illinois is 1-4-1 against the six teams.
Drake: Bradley lost 2-0 Sept. 21, won 1-0 Oct. 5 | WIU lost 1-0 Sept. 17
Eastern Illinois: Bradley lost 1-0 Sept. 13 | WIU won 2-1 Oct. 26
IUPUI: Bradley won 1-0 Sept. 6 | WIU tied 2-2 Oct. 30
Missouri State: Bradley lost 3-0 Oct. 9, lost 2-1 Oct. 19 | WIU lost 4-0 Sept. 26
Northern Illinois: Bradley lost 2-1 Sept. 15 | WIU lost 2-1 Sept. 28
Oakland: Bradley tied 2-2 Sept. 8 | WIU lost 3-1 Sept. 6
