No. 13/11 Men's Soccer vs. Vassar
NCAA Tournament First Round | Brunswick Regional
Saturday, November 12 | 1:30 p.m.
Pickard Field | Brunswick, Maine
SERIES HISTORY
• Babson and Vassar will meet for the first time on Saturday.
BABSON IN THE POSTSEASON
• The Beavers' 30 NCAA Tournament appearances rank fourth among this year's participants behind only Ohio Wesleyan (43), Messiah (32), and Rowan (30).
• Babson's three national championships are tied for fourth in Division III history with UC San Diego behind only Messiah (11), UNC Greensboro (5), Tufts (4).
• The Beavers have reached the national semifinals on five occasions (1975, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1991) and advanced to the sectional semifinals in both 2010 and 2011.
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
NCAA Tournament Appearance: 30th (28th in Division III)
Best NCAA Finish: 1975, 1979 and 1980 Division III National Champions
• No. 13/11 Babson (15-3-2) captured its third consecutive NEWMAC Tournament championship with a 1-0 win over Emerson last Saturday.
• Graduate student Ben Williams broke the scoreless deadlock with his team-leading 12th goal in the 63rd minute for the Beavers, who extended their winning streak to seven matches.
• Williams (12-3-27) is tied for sixth in Division III with six game-winning goals, junior Louis Gazo (6-7-17) has produced four game-winning markers and the trio of senior Mitchell Collins (3-8-14), graduate student Ryan Goss (1-8-10) and junior Ryan Kim (0-7-7) give the Green and White four players with at least seven assists on the year.
• Sophomore goalkeeper Walker White has started all 20 matches and boasts a 0.78 goals against average and a .800 save percentage to go along with six solo and 11 combined shutouts this fall.
SCOUTING THE BREWERS
NCAA Tournament Appearance: 5th
Best NCAA Finish: Advanced to the second round in 1999 and 2012
• Vassar (9-3-5) enters the NCAA Tournament riding an 11-game unbeaten streak and earned an at-large bid after falling in penalty kicks to Skidmore in the Liberty League semifinals last Friday.
• Eric Wnorowski made four saves over 110 minutes for the Brewers, who lost the shootout 3-2 after being shutout for the first time since September 10.
• Owen Fauth (8-4-20) and Duncan Keker (7-0-14) have combined to score six game-winning goals, Ryan Lane has contributed three goals and two assist for eight points, and Jackson Hall (2-3-7) is tied for second on the team in assists.
• Wnorowski has started all 17 matches on the year and owns a 0.77 goals against average and a .794 save percentage to go along with five clean sheets.
WILLIAMS, HANLON LEAD BEAVERS' SEVEN ALL-CONFERENCE SELECTIONS
• Williams was selected as the NEWMAC Co-Player of the Year, while Hanlon was recognized as the league's defensive player of the year on Wednesday.
• The duo was joined on the All-NEWMAC first team by Collins and Gazo, while Goss, Walker and senior Ryan Grund were all named to the all-conference second team.
• Williams is the Beavers' first player of the year honoree since 2018 and the seven all-league selections are the program's most in the 25-year history of the NEWMAC.
TOURNAMENT TESTED
• Goss, Collins, Grund, Hanlon and fellow seniors Ross Shellow and fellow seniors Noah Labelle, Samuel Smith, Liam Hanlon, Jack Dugan, RJ Parrilla, and Rodrigo Madiedo have all played major roles in as Babson has claimed three straight NEWMAC titles and made three straight NCAA Tournament appearances since 2019.
• Collins and Hanlon have started all 11 of the Beavers' postseason matches going back to 2018, while Shellow, Keenan and Parrilla have each been part of the starting XI nine times during their respective careers.
• Keenan has scored four goals in seven postseason contests, while Dugan, Hanlon and Grund, who tallied the OT game winner against Wheaton in the 2019 NEWMAC semifinals, all have one postseason marker on their ledger.
CLEAN SHEETS
• Babson enters the NCAA Tournament having posted six consecutive shutouts and having not conceded a goal in 595:03 going back to an October 15 win at WPI.
• The Beavers six straight clean sheets are their most since blanking seven consecutive opponents spanning the end of the 1992 campaign and the start of the 1993 season.
GIVE ME LIBERTY
• Saturday's match against Vassar is the first against a Liberty League foe for the Green and White since 2017 when it defeated St. Lawrence and Clarkson at Hartwell-Rogers Field.
• Babson has never played a Liberty League opponent in the NCAA Tournament.
STREAKING BEAVERS
• Babson's seven-game winning streak is its longest since running off seven consecutive victories from September 17-October 8 in 2011.
• Only two Division III programs – No. 1 Messiah (18) and Husson (8) - enter the NCAA Tournament with a longer active winning streak than the Beavers.
MOVING UP THE CHARTS
• Collins became the 26th player in program history to reach the 50-point mark with his assist on Gazo's 90th-minute goal in Thursday's NEWMAC Tournament semifinal win over Wheaton. His 20 career assists are also tied for 14th all-time in program history.
• The 12 goals scored by Williams this season are the most by a Babson player since 2014 when Justin Laurenzo '15 tallied 15 times in 2014, and his 27 points have him tied for 20th in the program's single-season list.
• Goss and Collins both have recorded eight assists this fall, which is the highest total by a Babson player since 2014 when Tyler Carlos '16 helped set up nine goals.
IN A CLASS BY THEMSELVES
• Legendary Babson head coach Jon Anderson '75 joins Jay Martin of Ohio Wesleyan as the only two head coaches among the 64 participants in this year's tournament with more than 400 wins.
• Anderson ranks sixth among active Division III coach and 15th all-time with 443 wins, while Martin's 748 victories are the most in NCAA history regardless of division.
NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers are 6-2-1 away from home this season.
• Babson is 15-0 on the year when scoring the first goal of the match.
• The Beavers are 11-0 when scoring at least two goals.
• The Green and White has gone 12-0-2 this fall when conceding one goal or fewer.
• Babson is 15-1-1 on the year when ahead or tied at halftime.
• The Beavers are 9-1 in matches played on Saturday.
UP NEXT
• The winner of Saturday's match will face either No. 8/8 Bowdoin or Merchant Marine in Sunday's second round at 1 p.m.
