The Bowdoin College men’s soccer team will pursue its third consecutive New England Small College Athletic Conference championship as the Polar Bears travel to top-seeded Amherst for the conference semifinals on Saturday.
Sixth-seeded Middlebury meets fourth-seeded Hamilton in the first game of the semifinal doubleheader at 11 a.m. on Saturday and will be followed by Amherst and seventh-seeded Bowdoin at 1:30 p.m. The advancing teams will square off at noon on Sunday with an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament on the line.
The NESCAC will provide live statistics coverage and video webcast of all the contests this weekend at NESCAC.com
Amherst (14-1-1, 8-1-1 NESCAC) heads into the weekend looking for its fourth NESCAC title since 2011. Amherst advanced to its sixth semifinal in seven years behind four goals from four different players in the win over Trinity. The Purple and White scored two late first-half goals and tacked on two more in the final 45 minutes for the victory.
The Polar Bears, the two-time defending NESCAC champion, upset No. 2 Tufts, 2-1 in the quarterfinals, and are looking to advance to their third straight championship game. Bowdoin scored twice in the first 11 minutes and held off a late rally by the Jumbos to advance.
Bowdoin is riding a six-game unbeaten streak and has one of the stingiest defenses in the league. Bowdoin has allowed nine goals and sports a 0.75 goals against average. Senior Noah Safian assumed starting goaltending duties on Oct. 9 and has not lost since, going 4-0-2. Junior midfielder Ethan Ellsworth leads the team in scoring with 14 points and has a team-high six assists. Sophomore Moctar Niang has scored a team-best six goals and tallied 13 points.
Amherst blanked Bowdoin, 1-0, on Sept. 10 in the NESCAC season-opener for both teams.
Women’s volleyball
Bowdoin will look to win back-to-back NESCAC Championships as the Polar Bears travel to Medford, Mass., home of Tufts University, for the conference tournament beginning on today.
Quarterfinal round action is slated to get underway at 5 p.m. Semifinal matches will be played on Saturday followed by the championship match on Sunday.
Fourth-seeded Bowdoin will battle fifth-seeded Williams at 8 p.m. tonight. The complete tournament schedule, as well as live webcast coverage, is available at NESCAC.com.
Bowdoin (14-9, 6-4 NESCAC), the defending NESCAC champion, will meet Williams (13-10, 6-4 NESCAC) in a rematch of last year’s championship match. The Polar Bears are making their 11th straight postseason appearance and have been in the finals three times in the last five years, twice meeting up with Williams.
Bowdoin enters the tournament coming off a pair of sweeps and seems to be playing its best volleyball of the season.
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