May 10, 2007
NORMAL, Ill. -
The No. 21 Illinois State softball team had to wait until late Thursday night to find out who would be its opponent in Friday's State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Championship Semifinal. Southern Illinois earned a 1-0 decision over Bradley to advance to Friday's round and take on the No. 2 tournament-seed Redbirds.
The in-state rivals will meet at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow at Redbird Softball Complex, with the winner advancing to Saturday's championship game, taking on the winner of No. 1-seed Creighton and No. 4-seed Wichita State. The 2007 State Farm MVC Tournament championship match will take place at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 12.
Boasting an 8-4 all-time conference tournament record over the Salukis, the Redbirds are also 2-1 against Southern Illinois in 2007. Both those wins came at home just two weeks ago. The last State Farm MVC tournament meeting between ISU and SIU came on May 13, 2005 in Wichita, Kan. The `Birds were also victorious in that meeting, taking down their in-state foe, 2-1.
Illinois State has had plenty of practice against ranked opponents this season. The Redbirds boast a 9-4 record against top-25 clubs this season, with three of those decisions against No. 22 Southern Illinois. ISU advanced in this week's polls, after last weekend's series sweep of Missouri State, which was eliminated from the tournament by a 2-1 loss to Bradley. Improving to No. 21 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Top-25 Poll and ranked No. 22 on the USA Today/NFCA Top-25 chart, the `Birds moved up on both lists this week. ISU has now been ranked in both polls for the last nine weeks, dating back to March 7.
The `Birds are an impressive 15-2 at Redbird Softball Complex this season and only one of those losses came in Valley play, though it was the Salukis that handed ISU its lone home conference loss on April 28. That .882 winning percentage at home adds to ISU's home field advantage entering Friday's game.
