NEWTON, Mass. – The fifth seeded Mount Ida College men's soccer team will travel to top-seeded Johnson and Wales tomorrow evening in the semifinals of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) tournament, with each team looking to secure a spot in Saturday's championship game.

Here's the scoop on tomorrow afternoon's game.

Where and When:  Tuesday, November 4^th @ 4:00 PM.
Scott's Miracle-Gro Athletics Complex in Providence, R.I.

Records:
Mount Ida: 9-8-1 (4-4-1 GNAC), 4-5 Away
Johnson & Wales: 13-5-1 (8-1 GNAC), 8-1-1 Home

Coverage: Live Stats and Video will be available with links on the home page of mountidamustangs.com.

Tournament History/How they Got Here: Making their fourth consecutive appearance in the conference tournament, Mount Ida got past the first round for the first time since 2008 thanks to a 2-1 win at #4 Albertus Magnus on Saturday, the first win in program history in New Haven. The Mustangs are looking for their first appearance in the conference championship since joining the GNAC in 2007. They have three conference titles as a program, all of them coming as members of the North Atlantic Conference (NAC) (1999, 2000, and 2005).

The Wildcats are the defending conference champions, looking to make a return trip to the NCAA tournament, where they fell to Brandeis 3-0 last year after defeating Lasell on penalty kicks to win the GNAC in Mount Ida's backyard. That win marked the sixth GNAC Championship in the history of the program and the first since 2007.  The Wildcats won the conference crown in 2007, 2005, 2003, 2002 and 1995.

Series History: Mount Ida is 2-6-2 all-time against the Wildcats and 1-4 on the road, with their only win in Providence coming in 2008. Mount Ida's other win in the series came last year in Newton, Mass. when the Mustangs dealt JWU their first loss of the season with a 2-0 shutout, breaking a 10-0-3 streak to start the season for the Wildcats. Mat Pils (Monroe, Conn.) made nine stops to earn the shutout and Dakota Howell (Mesa, Ariz.) scored his first NCAA goal in the 38^th minute for the eventual game-winner. Elias Mejia (Freehold, N.J.) converted a penalty kick just seconds after halftime to double Mount Ida's advantage.

2014 Meeting: In this year's regular season meeting in Providence, Ray Durski scored twice and Johnson & Wales used three second half goals to beat Mount Ida 3-0. Xavier Carty finished the scoring with just two seconds left in the game after Durski had scored in the 52^nd and 60^th minutes. Ryan Dzierzawski made four saves to earn the shutout for the Wildcats, while Pils made six stops in the loss.

Recent Games: Mount Ida has won three of their last four games, including victories over GNAC foes Saint Joseph's (Maine) (2-1) and Norwich (1-0) to close out their conference season. The only loss since the middle of October was a 5-0 defeat to Brandeis, ranked #3 in the nation, in a non-conference tune-up for the GNAC playoffs.

Johnson and Wales has six wins in their last seven games, six of them shutouts, of which the Wildcats have ten on the season. Since the start of October, JWU has allowed just seven goals, three of which came in a 3-0 loss to non-conference power Rhode Island College in their own tournament tune-up.

What's at Stake: A place in the GNAC championship game on Saturday, November 8^th at the site of the higher seed.  The opponent will be the winner of the other semifinal matchup between #2 Norwich and #3 Lasell, which is being played at 7:00 pm on Tuesday in Northfield, Vt.