Freshman Chris Austin sets up another free kick.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (Nov. 4, 2000) — The University of Kentucky men’s soccer team continues play in the 2000 Mid-American ConferenceTournament when it faces Marshall in the semifinals on Sunday, Nov. 5. Kickoff is slated for 4:30 p.m. EST at RAC Fieldon the campus of the University at Buffalo.

The Cats (9-8-1) advanced to the semis with a 1-0 triumph over Northern Illinois, while the Thundering Herd(14-4-1) got past Western Michigan, 2-1, in double overtime.

UK continues to be led by sophomore Chris McDaniel, who has notched a goal in each of the last two games. A

Senior Brian O’Leary prepars to put the ball back into play after making one of his six saves.

week ago his goal gave UK a tie with No. 13 Penn State, while he scored the game’s lone goal against NIU. In goal, seniorBrian O’Leary continues his excellent play as he tallied his sixth shutout of the season in the MAC quarterfinals reducing hisgoals-against average to 1.16 overall and 0.99 against MAC opponents.

Marshall enters the match with MAC Player of the Year Byron Carmichael. Carmichael scored 17 goals in the regularseason and notched four assists for a team-leading 38 points. The high-scoring Herd offense has outscored its opposition48-15 on the year while averaging 2.7 goals a game.

“Marshall has been a very dominating team,” head coach Ian Collins said. “Carmichael is the leading scorer in theleague, and we will have to work hard to contain him. With our ongoing injuries and our youth, we are in for a challenge,but we look forward to it and will play our hardest to advance to the finals.”

Freshman Savvas Theofilou sends the ball in for a scoring opportunity.

Kentucky had dominated the series leading up to this season with a 6-2-1 advantage, outscoring the Herd 21-10 in thosenine games. MU turned the tables this season, however, when they topped the Cats 4-0 on Oct. 22, in Huntington,W.Va. These teams have never met in MAC Tournament play.

Originally, the tournament had been scheduled to play according to the seeded bracket, but the conference decided thatheading into the semis, the teams would be manipulated so that the highest remaining seed would play the lowestremaining seed.

Going into the tournament, Bowling Green was seeded No. 1 while Kentucky was No. 4; thus, if the seeds had held, UKand BG would have met in the semifinals. However, as is often the case, an upset occurred in the first round when No. 6Buffalo downed the No. 3 Akron Zips, 2-1, to advance. BG will square off against Buffalo in the first semifinal Sunday at2:30 p.m. The winners of the semifinals will meet in one week on the home field of the highest remaining seed.