Bradley University Athletics

Bradley Soccer Announces 2022 Slate

Josh Schwam

Soccer 7/28/2022 11:22:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. – A pair of home matches against teams that played in last year's NCAA Tournament highlight a nine-game home slate for Bradley Soccer in 2022 with Head Coach Jim DeRose announcing the full 17-match schedule.

Preparations for the upcoming 2022 campaign gets underway with the Braves hosting a pair of exhibition contests against Xavier (Aug. 13) and former Missouri Valley Conference rival Creighton (Aug. 16) at Shea Stadium. The exhibition slate concludes Aug. 20 with Bradley traveling to Indianapolis for a contest at Butler.

The Braves opens the regular-season schedule Thursday, Aug. 25 with a home contest against Northern Kentucky in the earliest season opener since 2018.

Bradley's first road match of the season has the Braves visiting Kansas City three days later on Aug. 28, before returning home to host defending Mid-American Conference champion Northern Illinois, which wrapped up a 15-3-2 season in the 2021 NCAA Tournament, on Thursday, Sept. 1

A two-match road swing kicks off Sept. 4 at Green Bay and includes a Sept. 9 outing at Omaha.

NCAA Division I newcomer Southern Indiana visits Shea Stadium on Sept. 13.

Back-to-back road matches to open Missouri Valley Conference play has Bradley facing both of the MVC newcomers. The Braves head to Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17 for the first road contest at Belmont since 2012. Bradley then makes the short trip to Chicago for the first league matchup against UIC on Sept. 24. The Braves and Flames have met 17 times previously as non-conference foes.

Bradley's annual Homecoming match on Oct. 1 will pit the Braves against defending MVC champion Missouri State, which is coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance and posted a 17-2-0 mark last year.

The Missouri State contest kicks off a stretch in which Bradley plays six of the final nine matches at Shea Stadium to close out the regular-season schedule.

The Braves host Drake Oct. 5 in the first of two matches against the Bulldogs in 2022. After visiting Evansville for an Oct. 9 road contest, Bradley has back-to-back non-conference contests with a home outing against Eastern Illinois (Oct. 11) and a trip to Ann Arbor, Mich., for an Oct. 14 tilt at Michigan in BU's first match against a Big Ten opponent dating back to a 2018 home match against Wisconsin.

Bradley's final Valley road match of the season falls on Oct. 19 at Drake with the Braves finishing out the regular season with a three-match home stand for the first time since 1999.

Back-to-back Valley home contests open the season-long, three-match home stand with UIC (Oct. 23) and SIU Edwardsville (Oct. 29) visiting Shea Stadium. The contest against UIC will mark Bradley's annual Danny Dahlquist Memorial Game.

The regular-season concludes with the Braves hosting Incarnate Word on Wednesday, Nov. 2.

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