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RIPON, Wis. – The 2012 Midwest Conference Men’s Soccer Tournament returns three teams from 2011 with Carroll looking for its third straight MWC Tournament title. This season Lake Forest hosts the 2012 tournament after finishing the regular season with 14 overall wins and a 9-1-0 conference mark for its 15th MWC Championship. Joining the Foresters will be Carroll, Beloit and Grinnell with the tournament taking place November 2-3, 2012.
Lake Forest will host Grinnell at 2 p.m. on Friday at Farwell Field on campus while Carroll and Beloit will face off against each other at 2 p.m at Waukegan Sports Park in Waukegan, Ill. The winner of the semifinal matches square off on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Farwell Field with the winner claiming the MWC automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
After dropping the semifinal match of the 2011 MWC Tournament as the fourth seed the Foresters are back this season after winning its first MWC Championship since the 2001 season with a 14-3-1 overall record and a near perfect 9-1-0 conference mark. Leading the Foresters this season is reining MWC Offensive Player of the Year Mahir Mameledzija. Mameledzija led the conference with 27 goals and 58 points in only 18 games which was 24 more points than the next closest competitor. Included those 17 games were ten multi goal games, including three hat tricks, as he only failed to record a point in two contests. Dylan Hartman and Steven Johnson compliment Mameledzija for the conference’s top goal scoring team as Hartman contributed six goals and four assists while Johnson ranked in a tie for the most assists in the league with seven. Defensively Lake Forest was one of the best in the conference in goal prevention, giving up less than a goal per game (0.78) headlined by goalkeeper Ethan Guenther who allowed only five goals in 13 starts that included seven shutouts.
2011 MWC Tournament host Carroll is also back in the tournament after finishing just behind Lake Forest with a 7-1-1 conference mark to go along with ten overall wins. Carroll ranked fifth in the league in terms of goals scored and the goals they did score were important ones as the Pioneers held a 6-3-1 record in one goal games. Nemanja Medic headlines the Pioneers offensive production with 16 points (six goals, four assists) which includes a pair of game winning goals. Francisco Sajuan (five goals, assist) and Dan Czernicki (four goals, two assists) have combined to score nine goals with Sajuan scoring three game winners and Czernicki holding a 22.7% shot percentage. Tomek Miaskowski posted a 1.19 goals against average which ranked fourth in the league while also picking up three shutouts among his ten wins. The Pioneers have used a fast starting offense to earn their way to the tournament, outscoring opponents 21-5 in the first half.
Beloit is back in the MWC Tournament for the 14th time in the last 23 season and will be playing for its first trip to the NCAA Tournament in school history. The Buccaneers are one of the top offensive teams in the league averaging 2.25 goals per game (third in MWC) and over 14 shots per game (third in MWC). The offense is led by Marc Robinson who is second in the league in both points (34) and goals (14). Robinson scored multiple goals in four games this season and finished the year recording 20 points in his last six games that included a pair of six point games. Jackson Wilkins helps form a strong one-two punch for the Beloit offense after scoring eight goals and assisting on seven more while teammate Anthony Racine has seven goals and an assist on the season. As well as the offense has performed the defense has been just as good allowing only 12 goals in 16 games and posting a team goals against average of 0.77. B.J. Kiser was second in the MWC with a .855 save percentage and also second with a 0.78 goals against average with five shutouts.
Grinnell used a victory over Ripon on the final day of competition to earn a spot in for the sixth time in the last seven season and play for a chance to get into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2009. The Pioneers finished fourth in the league with 32 goals in 17 games while holding opponents to only 22 goals. Joseph Brown leads the Grinnell offense with a team-best 12 goals and 28 points which ranked third in the MWC in both categories. Elliot Meyer and Victor Ghazal compliment Brown in the goal scoring department with four goals each with teammate Benjamin Warner tallying ten points to finish third on the team. Isaiah Tyree mans the goal for the Pioneers and backstopped three shutouts this season while posting a 1.28 goals against average and a .786 save percentage while playing in every minute for Grinnell.