No. 11 Men's Soccer at No. 3 Middlebury
NCAA Tournament Quarterfinal
Sunday, November 24 | 12:30 p.m. 
South Street Field | Middlebury, Vt. 

WHAT TO KNOW
•    The Babson College men's soccer team advanced to the NCAA Tournament sectionals for the first time since 2011 with back-to-back shutout victories at Hartwell-Rogers Field last weekend. 
•    After defeating No. 13 Trinity (Texas), 2-0, on Saturday, the Beavers will look to avenge their only loss of the season when they take on No. 3 Middlebury in Sunday's sectional final. 

SCHEDULE
Sectional Semifinals | Saturday, November 23
No. 3 Middlebury (16-1-3) 1, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 0
No. 11 Babson 2, No. 13 Trinity 0

Sectional Final | Sunday, November 24
No. 11 Babson (17-1-6) at No. 3 Middlebury (17-1-3), 12:30 p.m. 

SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson is 7-5-6 all-time against Middlebury in a series that dates back to 1979. 
•    Prior to their meeting back in mid-October, the Beavers and Panthers had not met since the 2010 NCAA Tournament sectional semifinals and had not played in the regular season since 1997.
•    The Beavers own a 3-3-2 record on the road in the all-time series and had not faced the Panthers in Vermont since 1992 prior to October's matchup. 

LAST MEETING
•    Ari Klayman broke a 1-1 deadlock at the 87:09 mark as the Panthers defeated Babson, 3-1, on October 14 at South Street Field. 
•    Will Sawin opened the scoring in the fifth minute for Middlebury and Keagen Harder scored 45 seconds after Klayman's go-ahead marker for the hosts, who outshot the Beavers 28-10 on the day. 
•    Senior Liam Rhatigan scored in the 57th minute for the Green and White, which got a season-high 10 saves from senior goalkeeper Walker White. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
NCAA Tournament Appearance: 32nd (30th in Division III)
Best NCAA Finish: 1975, 1979 and 1980 Division III national champions 
•    No. 11 Babson (16-1-6) has won nine consecutive games and followed up Saturday's 1-0 victory over St. John Fisher with a 1-0 second round triumph over Wesleyan. 
•    Senior Matias Gutierrez scored in the 82nd minute of Saturday's NCAA Tournament opener and classmate Liam Rhatigan scored the decisive goal in the 52nd minute on Sunday for the Beavers, who got three saves in each contest from senior goalkeeper Walker White to reach the sectionls for the first time since 2011.
•    Graduate student Kento Abe (8-6-22) leads the team with five game-winning goals, classmate James Donaldson (7-6-20) has produced a point in five of the last seven matches, and the trio of Rhatigan (6-1-13), Gutierrez (5-3-13) and sophomore Alexander Yablonovskiy (5-3-13) has combined for six goals and three assists over the last five games. 
•    White has started all 23 matches this fall and ranks third in Division III in both goals against average (0.45) and shutouts (13) and is 17th nationally with a .851 save percentage. 
 
SCOUTING THE PANTHERS
NCAA Tournament Appearance: 17th
Best NCAA Finish: 2007 Division III national champions 
•    No. 3 Middlebury (17-1-3) advanced to the sectionals for the second year in a row by defeating Hunter 7-0 in the first round and edging Vassar 2-1 in the second round last Sunday. 
•    Shane Farrell opened the scoring in the 18th minute and Harder converted a penalty kick in the 49th minute for the Panthers, who set a new single-season record with 53 goals and got three saves from Joey Waterman in the win over the Brewers. 
•    Harder (9-2-22) scored three goals in the wins over Hunter and Vassar, Kyle Nilsson (4-8-16) has contributed at least one point in four of the last six matches, and the duo of Colin Dugan (6-3-15) and Gavin Randolph (6-3-15) has combined for five game-winning goals on the year. 
•    Waterman has started 20 of 21 games and boasts a 0.62 goals against average and a a .842 save percentage to go along with 10 clean sheets, which is tied for sixth in Division III. 

BEAVERS IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
•    Babson is making its 32nd NCAA Tournament appearance and 13th in the last 16 years. 
•    The 1975, 1979 and 1980 Division III national champions also advanced to the national semifinals in both 1977 and 1991 and reached the sectional semifinals in 2010 and 2011.
•    The Green and White has reached the national quarterfinals for the first time since 1991 when it defeated Cortland 3-0 to advance to the Final Four. 

EIGHT EARN ALL-NEWMAC HONORS
•    After going unbeaten in league play and outscoring its opponents 30-2 in nine matches, eight Beavers were recognized when the NEWMAC released its all-conference teams late last week. 
•    White, Donaldson, Abe, Rhatigan, senior Samuel Kalishman and junior Liam Goldstein were named to the first team, while the backline duo of gradate student Marco Cerezo and junior Joao Araujo both collected second-team accolades. 

TOURNAMENT TRENDS
•    After scoring in the first half of seven consecutive matches from October 19-November 9, the Beavers have scored all four of their goals in the NCAA Tournament after halftime. 
•    With its shutout on Saturday, Babson has now kept clean sheets in its first three NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1991. The Green and White also recorded three straight shutouts on the way to winning its second national championship back in 1979.
•    The Beavers have gotten four goals from four different players during its NCAA Tournament run, which includes Abe and Yablonovskiy providing the markers in Saturday's victory over Trinity.  

LEGENDS ON THE SIDELINE
•    Saturday's sectional semifinal featured two of the top three among active Division III coaches in wins.
•    Babson head coach Jon Anderson '75, who is now in his 39th season, picked up his 471st career victory and got the best of Trinity's Paul McGinlay, who ranks second among active coaches and fifth all-time with 571 wins. 

DOMINATING DEFENSES
•    Babson ranks first in Division III with 16 shutouts, which are its most since 1991, and has kept seven consecutive clean sheets going back to October 30. 
•    The Beavers have given up their fewest goals (10) since 1990 and rank second in Division III in both goals against average (0.44) and shutouts per game (.652). 
•    Not to be outdone, Middlebury ranks eighth in Division III in shutout percentage and 15th in goals against average. 

STREAKING BEAVERS
•    The Green and White has won 10 consecutive games while outscoring its foes 23-1.
•    Babson enters Sunday's match having not conceded a goal in over 697 minutes dating back to a 2-1 win at MIT on October 26, which is the longest run without allowing a goal since 1982 when it went over 720 minutes between opponent tallies. 
•    In addition to being the longest active streak in Division III, the Beavers' 10 straight wins are their most since rattling off 10 consecutive victories back in 1992. 

MAKING HIS MARK ON THE RECORD BOOKS
•    White has put together one of the best season's by a goalkeeper in Babson history and enters the weekend tied for third on the program's single-season list in wins (16), ranks fifth with the lowest goals against average (0.45) since Steve Webber '92 in 1990, and his 11 shutouts are the most since 2006. 
•    In 66 career games for the Beavers, White ranks third in goals against average (0.64), fifth in both wins (41) and shutouts (29) and fourth in minutes played (5,669). 

FAMILIAR SURROUNDINGS
•    Babson will make the drive to Middlebury, Vt., for the third time in just over a calendar year this weekend after playing Johns Hopkins on South Street Field in the first round of last season's NCAA Tournament in addition to suffering its only loss of this year's campaign to the Panthers on October 13. 
•    The Beavers, who fell to Johns Hopkins 4-3 in 2OT last November, have gone 22-2-12 over their last 36 games with both setbacks coming on Middlebury's campus. 

WHEN 90 MINUTES ISN'T ENOUGH
•    After abolishing regular overtime in the regular season three years ago, teams will play two 10-minute periods of sudden death overtime if the game is tied at the end of regulation. 
•    Should the contest remain tied after 110 minutes, it will be decided on penalty kicks.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    The Beavers are 5-1-4 on the road this season and have won their last three outings. 
•    Babson is 17-0-6 when leading or tied at halftime this fall. 
•    The Green and White is 17-0-3 when scoring the first goal of the match on the year and 73-5-8 when doing so going back to 2018.
•    Over the last three seasons, the Beavers are 40-1-15 when conceding one goal or fewer.
•    The Green and White is 12-0 this fall when scoring at least two goals. 
•    The Beavers' 17 wins are their most since 2014 and just one shy of the single-season program record of 18 set back in 1991.

UP NEXT
•    Sunday's winner advance to the national semifinals in Las Vegas on December 5.