They must have had revenge on their minds when Amherst descended upon Middlebury's Homecoming reveries. Though they had tied 1-1 in overtime in their last meeting, the NCAA tournament needed a winner to determine who would face eventual national champion Williams in the regional finals. Blasting their first three penalty kicks into the net, the Jeffs extended their season just one more game.

Amherst seemed to maintain some of that drive in the early minutes of this year's matchup. All-American Mario Watts '97 (St. Catherine, Jamaica) carried the ball on a break away to Co-Captain Stephen Carr '97 (Concord, MA) for Carr's first goal of the season. But Middlebury responded before the halftime buzzer with two shots past goalie Kevin Larner '99 (Short Hills, NJ) within two minutes of each other.

Despite this loss, Amherst is still in the top ten of the NSCAA/Umbro New England Division III Poll, tied with WPI at No. 10. Middlebury rises to No. 8 with a 4-2 record.

After a midweek meeting at Trinity, the Jeffs travel to Minnesota for two games against Macalester and St. Thomas. The current Amherst roster boasts three players from the land of 10,000 lakes: Andrew Bachman '97 (Minneapolis, MN), Kent Berg '99 (Woodbury, MN) and Chris Murphy '97 (St. Paul, MN).