Men's Soccer vs. SUNY Oneonta
NCAA Tournament | First Round
Saturday, November 15 | 1:30 p.m. 
Freeman Field | New London, Conn. 

WHAT TO KNOW
•    The Babson men's soccer team earned one of 43 automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament and will travel to the campus of Connecticut College for the first and second rounds this weekend. 
•    The Beavers will join the seventh-ranked Camels, who advanced the national championship game last season, SUNY Oneonta and Saint Joseph (Conn.) at Freeman field for matches on Saturday and Sunday. 

SCHEDULE
First Round | Saturday, November 15
No. 7 Connecticut College (10-3-5) vs. Saint Joseph (13-4-2), 11 a.m.
Babson (10-6-4) vs. SUNY Oneonta (12-4-4), 1:30 p.m.

Second Round | Sunday, November 16
First round winners, 1 p.m.

SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson is 0-2 all-time against Oneonta in a series that dates back to 2014. 
•    The sides will meet in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament for the second time after the Red Dragons defeated the Beavers 3-2 in OT in 2019. 

LAST MEETING
•    Witman Hernandez scored his second goal of the game 4:47 into extra time to lift SUNY Oneonta to a 3-2 win over Babson in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on November 16, 2019, in Oneonta, N.Y.
•    Tristan Battistoni scored in the 11th minute, Hernandez made it 2-0 less than two minutes into the second half and then score on the only shot of overtime after the Red Dragons gave up the lead midway through the second half. 
•    Ben Holman '20 scored I the 62nd minute and then assisted on Eamon Keenan's '22 goal in the 69th minute for the Beavers, who got 10 saves from Steven Heintzelman '20. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
NCAA Tournament Appearance: 33rd (31st in Division III)
Best NCAA Finish: 1975, 1979 and 1980 Division III national champions 
Last NCAA Tournament Appearance: 2024 (national quarterfinals)
•    Babson (10-6-4) enters the NCAA Tournament riding a two-game winning streak and is unbeaten in its last three outings after defeating WPI, 1-0, in last Saturday's NEWMAC Tournament final. 
•    Senior Liam Goldstein scored his second goal of the season in the 66th minute off a feed from junior Alexander Yablonovskiy, and sophomore goalkeeper JB Montague made three of his four saves in the second half for the Beavers, who kept their sixth clean sheet of the year.
•    Yablonovskiy (9-3-21) has produced at least one point in five of the last eight games, junior Titus Charles (3-1-7) and first-year Connor Hanrahan (3-1-7) have combined for three game-winning tallies, and first-year Will Boecher (2-3-7), senior Joao Araujo (1-3-5) and junior McKenzy Pierre (1-3-5) are tied for the team lead in assists. 
•    Montague is 9-4-2 in 16 starts this fall and ranks 23rd in Division III with a .836 save percentage to go along with a 0.77 goals against average and six shutouts. 

SCOUTING THE RED DRAGONS
NCAA Tournament Appearance: 16th (12th in Division III
Best NCAA Finish: National Semifinals (2011, 2014, 2015)
Last NCAA Tournament Appearance: 2023 (second round)
•    SUNY Oneonta (12-4-4) captured its 13th SUNYAC Tournament championship by rallying for a 2-1 win over Buffalo State last Saturday. 
•    Joe Holder tied the game in the 74th minute and Noah Hechler scored the go-ahead goal with a header off a long free kick by Zach Rabadi in the 86th minute for the Red Dragons, who got two saves from Nico Osorio in his first collegiate start. 
•    Holder (7-3-17) and Tommy Kliampas (8-0-16) have combined for 15 goals including one game-winning marker apiece, while the trio of Sam Rogers (6-4-16), Milton Mancias Magana (5-4-14) and Luigi Prosperi (5-4-14) are tied for second on the team in assists behind Rabadi (2-7-11). 
•    James Citron, who missed last Saturday's conference final, is 11-4-3 in 19 starts with a 0.85 goals against average and a .800 save percentage to go along with eight shutouts. 

BEAVERS IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
•     Babson is making its 33rd NCAA Tournament appearance, which includes six in a row since 2019 and 14 in the last 17 years going back to 2008. 
•    The Beavers kept four clean consecutive clean sheets and defeated St. John Fisher (1-0), Wesleyan (1-0) and Trinity (Texas) 2-0 to reach the national quarterfinals last year before falling on penalty kicks to Middlebury following a 0-0 draw. 
•    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 is 2-1-1 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament since 2021 when it defeated Cabrini, 2-1. The Beavers fell in penalties to Vassar following a 1-1 draw in 2022 and lost to Johns Hopkins 4-3 in 2OT in 2023. 

BATTLE TESTED
•    Eight of Babson's 18 opponents during the regular season will be competing in the NCAA Tournament with six of them finishing in the top 50 of the Division III NPI. 
•    The Beavers went 2-5-1 in the eight games with victories over Wesleyan and Occidental and a draw against UMass Boston. All five of their losses were one-goal decisions, four of which came against teams ranked in the top 30. 

VETERAN PRESENCE
•    The quartet of seniors Araujo and Goldstein and juniors Yablonovskiy and Will Lloyd have played key roles for the Beavers in the postseason since 2023. 
•    Araujo, who had two assists in last week's NEWMAC Tournament, played all 110 minutes in the first round loss to Johns Hopkins in 2023 and started all four matches and played all but 18 minutes in last year's NCAA Tournament run to the quarterfinals. 
•    The NEWMAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player, Goldstein played all 110 minutes versus Johns Hopkins and made three appearances in last year's NCAA Tournament despite suffering an injury in the regular season finale. 
•    Yablonovskiy has scored a pair of goals in five NCAA Tournament games over the last two seasons, while Lloyd has started all five of his NCAA games and played every minute during last year's run. 

LEGEND ON THE SIDELINES
•    Babson head coach Jon Anderson '75, who is now in his 40th season, ranks second among active Division III coaches and 12th all-time with 481 career wins. 
•    He owns 49 career conference or NCAA Tournament victories going back to 1986, and is 15-16-6 all-time in 21 NCAA appearances with the Beavers. 
•    In addition to the wins his 98 draws rank third all-time in Division III.

LITTLE IN COMMON
•    Babson and Oneonta shared just one common opponent this fall in Little East Conference champion UMass Boston. 
•    The Beavers played to a 1-1 draw against the Beacons on August 31, while the Red Dragons recorded a 2-0 win over UMass Boston on September 7. 

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
•    Babson is 7-0-1 this season and is unbeaten in 20 matches over the last two seasons when scoring at least two goals.
•    The Beavers are 8-0-2 in the month of November over the last two years. 
•    The Green and White has held 17 of its 20 opponents to one goal or fewer and Oneonta is just 3-4-3 when it scores less than two goals. 
•    The Beavers are 9-1 this fall when scoring first but just 1-5-4 when conceding the opening goal. 
•    Babson is 3-3-3 in road and neutral field matches this fall. 
•    The Green and White is 6-1-3 this season and 17-1-5 since the start of the 2024 campaign in games played on Saturday. 

UP NEXT
•    The winner of Saturday's clash will advance to face either No. 7 Connecticut College or Saint Joseph (Conn.) on Sunday at 1 p.m.