BRUNSWICK, Maine – The Bowdoin College men's soccer team will head to Vermont for the semifinals of the 2024 NESCAC Tournament, against host Middlebury College on Saturday morning.
 
The No. 2-seeded Panthers earned hosting rights after No. 8 Bowdoin (7-4-5) upset No. 1 Tufts in the quarterfinals. The Polar Bears and Jumbos played to a 1-1 tie, but Bowdoin advanced to the semifinals with a 4-3 win in the penalty kick shootout. Middlebury (13-0-3) will face the Polar Bears in the first semifinal on November 9 at 10:45 a.m. The Panthers reached the semifinals for the fifth year in a row with a 4-2 victory over No. 7 Hamilton. Middlebury scored three goals in the first 13 minutes of action and Hamilton's comeback effort late in the game fell short.
 
Williams and Connecticut College will play in the second semifinal game at 1:30 p.m . Saturday with Sunday's final slated for noon. All three games will be streamed via the NESCAC Network and can be viewed on mobile devices, computers, or OTT apps (Roku, AppleTV, AmazonFireTV). Go to the app store on your favorite device and search for NESCAC Network, download the app, and start watching.
 
Bowdoin (7-4-5) is in the semifinals for the first time since 2017 after advancing on penalty kicks in the quarterfinals. The Polar Bears rank second behind Middlebury in goals scored this season (33). Tyler Huck is tied for second among the NESCAC leaders with eight goals and has five assists, including the helper on the Polar Bears' goal versus Tufts in the quarterfinal, for a team-leading 21 points. Ronaldo Cabral paces Bowdoin in assists (7). Alex Ainsworth is the squad's top goalie with a 1.26 goals against average and a 0.648 save percentage. Ainsworth made two stops in the shootout and six in the contest versus Tufts to lift Bowdoin to victory.
 
The semifinal match is the first meeting between Middlebury and Bowdoin since the 2017 NESCAC Semifinals which the Panthers won, 1-0, in double overtime. Middlebury owns a 4-1-3 record versus the Polar Bears in the NESCAC Tournament. This season, the Panthers posted a 4-2 win at Bowdoin on October 5. Middlebury is seeking its first trip to the championship game since 2019, the same year the Panthers won their third NESCAC title. Bowdoin last played in the championship match in 2015 and won its second straight NESCAC title that year.
 
A complete recap of the game will be available immediately post-game at GoUBears.com