Ephs face Middlebury Saturday in NESCAC semis/D3cast.com to carry game on Internet

For the second consecutive year George McCormack has guided his Ephs into the NESCAC semifinals. McCormack's Ephs will face top-seeded Middlebury, winner of the last seven NESCAC titles, and host the final rounds of the 2008 NESCAC Men’s Lacrosse Championship this weekend in Middlebury, Vt.

Williams and Middlebury will play at noon on Saturday with Bowdoin and Wesleyan squaring off at 3:00 pm. Saturday's winners will meet at 12:00 pm on Sunday to determine the conference champion and the winner of the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

All of the games this weekend at Middlebury will be carried via a live video webcast from D3cast.com. Go to www.D3cast.com to see the games. It is advisable to go to D3cast.com 15-20 minutes before the start of the game to make sure that you will be able to see the game on your computer.
 
Middlebury (12-1, 8-1 NESCAC) has yet to lose in NESCAC Tournament play compiling a 15-0 record. Middlebury is 3-0 vs. the teams in this year's semifinals – Bowdoin, Wesleyan and Williams. The Ephs are 2-1, while Wesleyan is 1-2 with a win over Bowdoin, and Bowdoin is winless. However, the Polar Bears did lose to Middlebury by one goal in regulation and to Williams by one goal in overtime.

The Ephs, winner of six of their last seven games are 8-5 on the year and 4-5 in NESCAC play. McCormack's laxmen have defeated three nationally ranked teams this season – Keene State, Wesleyan and Tufts.

Williams only won two of its first seven games and had to muster up six wins in the last seven contests to advance to the semifinals. McCormack points to a combination of factors that keyed the turnaround. "Our defense solidified, we got great goal tending, more consistency on face-offs and benefited from our unselfish and opportunistic offense," said McCormack. In the regular season match up vs. Middlebury played in Middlebury in early April the Panthers prevailed over the Ephs by a score of 7-6 to avenges their loss in Williamstown in 2007. The Ephs battle back twice from three-goal deficits and scored with 1:02 remaining to marrow the score to 7-6 in favor of Middlebury, but could not get he equalizer.

Junior goalie Michael Gerbush has not allowed more than seven goals in a game over Williams’ last six victories and is third among NESCAC keepers with a 7.18 goals against average and a .627 save percentage. Up front, rookie attacker David Hawley (New Canaan, Conn.) has scored a team-leading 35 goals through 13 games, good enough for a 2.69 goals per game average that ranks second overall. Senior attack Dixon Hargrove is the one Eph with double digits in goals (11) and assists (17).

Junior midfielder Mike stone leads Middlebury in points (43) on 17 goals and 26 assists. Classmate Pete Britt has played every minute this season in goal and has compiled a 7.46 goals against average while fashioning a 12-1 record.

"We know our opponents and they know us," noted McCormack. "There are no secrets at this time of year. The team that can execute their own offensive and defensive game plans and make the least amount of critical errors will be the team that wins the tournament."