Peoria, Illinois – The Central Arkansas men's soccer team advanced to its first-ever Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Championship Match on Friday night, thanks to an 8-7 penalty shootout win over Bradley. The win sends the second-seeded Bears to Sunday's 1:00 PM title game, which will pit them against top-seeded Missouri State.

After playing to a 1-1 draw in the match's first 110:00 minutes, 109:24 of which were tied, Central Arkansas (8-10-1) and Bradley (11-7-3) each converted their first seven penalty shots, before Christian Ilia made the Bears a perfect 8-for-8. Roman Schindler lined up for Bradley's eighth attempt, and fired a rocket the rung off the crossbar and over, sending UCA on to the final round.

"This is something we've been working on for a while now," said UCA head coach Ross Duncan of his team's flawless penalty kick showing. "We knew as soon as we started looking at seeding that we might need them, so we've been practicing. Every one of our guys knew what spot he wanted to hit and went out and hit it. We were fortunate on the bounce on a couple of them, but that's how the game works."

Despite consistent pressure from Central Arkansas early in the match, including a header off the bar by MVC Player of the Year Niklas Brodacki in the 12^th minute, it would be the Braves who would strike first, as Jacob Taylor delivered a long throw-in directly to Gerit Wintermeyer, who buried his sixth goal of the season for a 1-0 lead in the 22^nd minute.

That lead would hold for just 36 seconds though, as UCA would see Brodacki collect a rebound off of a saved shot from Blake Stricker and even things up at 1-1 with his nation-leading 16^th goal of the season.

"I really think we benefited from when we were here last time," said Duncan in reference to the Bears' 3-0 loss at Bradley on October 28^th. "We really got it put on us in that game, and we spent a lot of time talking about responding to adversity. As soon as Bradley scored today, our guys grabbed the ball, met at midfield, talked for a second, set it down, and went and scored a goal. I'm not saying it's a direct result of the talks we had, but the mentality to be able to come back and fight right away is really important, because momentum is a really big thing in this game."

It looked like Bradley had found the game-winner with just two minutes remaining in the first overtime period, as Clark Emerson fired past UCA keeper Marc Olsen, but Tyler Ridener picked up the team save, laying out and clearing the ball to keep the match even at 1-1.

"Tyler had probably his best game in a Central Arkansas uniform," said Duncan. "He was incredible tonight. When you talk about moments that define a game, that was it. We were committed to making the save, and when Marc couldn't get there, Tyler threw himself in front of it, clearing it off the line. And that was it."

The Bears held a 16-13 shooting advantage on the night, getting five from Brodacki, three from Stricker, and a pair from Chris Holmes.

Central Arkansas, who advances to the MVC Championship Match for the first time since joining the Valley in 2010, will meet up with Missouri State, who defeated Evansville 6-5 on penalties earlier on Friday night. The winner of Sunday's match, which is set to kick off at 1:00 PM, will advance to the NCAA Tournament.

"That was so long ago that trying to take too much away from it could be a distraction," said Duncan of UCA's lone game against MSU this season, a 2-1 loss in double overtime on September 13^th. "We've gotten to see a lot of each other on film since then, and I'm expecting it to be a tight game. We feel good about knowing who they are, and I'm sure that they feel the same way about us. We came through tonight healthy, and we're going to be as ready for the match as we have been all season. Our boys are fired up."