PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Volleyball will be making consecutive trips to the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament for the first time in nearly two decades with the fourth-seeded Braves taking on #5 seed Valparaiso Thursday in an opening round matchup in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Capping a fourth-place regular-season league finish with back-to-back home wins, Bradley (15-14 overall, 11-7 MVC) will face Valparaiso in a 5 p.m. contest Thursday at Northern Iowa's McLeod Center in the first match of the three-day tournament to decide the Valley's automatic spot in the 2019 NCAA Tournament.
Valparaiso (13-19 overall, 8-10 MVC) won two of its final three matches, with the lone setback against regular-season champion UNI during that stretch, to finish fifth in the conference standings.