WILLIAMSTOWN, MA - Senior co-captain Ben Lavely (New Orleans, LA) elected the perfect time to score his first goal of the season, converting a corner-kick feed from classmate Joe Gannon (Hanson, MA) to give the fourth-seeded Amherst College men's soccer team a 1-0 NESCAC Tournament Semifinal victory over third-seeded Middlebury College on Saturday.

Lavely used Gannon's third dish of the season to sneak a well-timed header past Panthers goaltender and reigning NESCAC Player of the Week Zach Toth in the 13th minute. The teams battled scoreless for the next 77 minutes to give Amherst its second win over Middlebury (10-4-1) this year. Jeff rookie netminder Jeff Grover (Framingham, MA) turned away two shots for his third career shutout, while Toth was credited two saves in the losing effort.

With the victory, Amherst improves to 9-4-3 and moves on to face seventh-seeded Wesleyan University, which defeated tournament host and seventh-ranked Williams College, 1-0, in the other semifinal match-up, with the NESCAC Championship crown and an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament at stake. The game, Wesleyan's first appearance in a championship match, is set for kick off tomorrow (Sunday) at noon. The NESCAC men's soccer title has never been awarded to a team seeded lower than third in the tournament.

2005 NESCAC MEN'S SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
First Round—Sunday, Oct. 30 at Higher Seeds at 12:30 p.m.
No. 7 Wesleyan 4 at No. 2 Bowdoin 1
No. 6 Tufts 0 at No. 3 Middlebury 1
No. 5 Bates 1 at No. 4 Amherst College 2 (2OT)

Semifinals—Saturday, Nov. 5 at Williams
No. 1 Williams 0 vs. No. 7 Wesleyan 1
No. 3 Middlebury 0 vs. No. 4 Amherst 1

Finals-Sunday, Nov. 6 at Williams
No. 4 Amherst vs. No. 7 Wesleyan (noon)