Western Michigan University men's soccer head coach Chad Wiseman put it bluntly about the Mid-American Conference tournament championship game on Saturday, Nov. 12.

''The guys understand that it's a chance to cement themselves in Western Michigan history with a win,'' Wiseman said. ''They want the ring.''

To get the ring, the Broncos (13-2-2 overall) will travel back to regular season champion Akron (11-2-5, ranked 12^th in the nation) for the Saturday MAC tournament title game, which starts at 1 p.m. In a tough game this past Sunday, WMU fought back on the road after giving up a goal in the second minute to tie Akron, 1-1. The tie ensured the Zips would host on Saturday.

''Obviously, Akron is a talented team, but if you want to go down as one of the best ever, you have to win a championship,'' Wiseman said. ''We've stepped up to challenges during the season and this will be a different challenge.''

Western Michigan is a talented team, too, as evidenced by the number of players who earned postseason honors. Senior defender Daniel Nimick is the MAC Player of the Year, graduate goaltender Hunter Morse is Co-Goaltender of the Year and freshman midfielder Carson Hodgson is the Freshman of the Year. Also, Nimick, senior forward Charlie Sharp and senior midfielder Eric Conerty were named to the All-MAC First Team. Earning Second Team honors are Morse, senior forwards Mike Melaragni and Dylan Sing and senior defender Jaylen Shannon.

Oddly, earning a tie against the No. 12 team in the nation, and on its field, probably improved Western Michigan's chances at earning at least an at-large bid into the NCAA postseason tournament. Currently, a projection from two weeks ago had the Broncos into the NCAA field.

However, the best way to make the NCAA tournament is to win the MAC crown because the champion receives an automatic bid. The NCAA field is 48 teams with 23 making it as conference champions.

Oddly enough, even though the Broncos have a sterling overall record, they aren't ranked on the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 poll. 

''Nationally, I think they are missing the boat on us,'' the head coach said. ''We're second in the nation, having allowed just seven goals this season.

''That's remarkable.''

Western Michigan's national stats are pretty darn good. WMU is tied with Duke for the most shutouts (11) and is second nationally in goal differential, having scored 38 goals and allowed seven. That is just one goal behind national leader Washington, which is the No. 1 ranked team in the nation who lost to Clemson in the national title game last season.

Akron is up there in the national statistics, too. The Zips are tops in the nation with 48 goals scored.

Western Michigan and Akron have met twice this season with the first game being a 1-0 victory by the Zips in Kalamazoo. The third time is for everything on Saturday.

''If you review the first Akron game here, we felt we played really well, but at the end of the day, we could have had more quality moments,'' Wiseman said. ''Akron is one of the top three attacking teams in the nation, but we held them to one goal here, then one goal at Akron on Saturday.''

That goal could have been a crusher, the Zips scoring on a header by Jason Shookalook before many people had settled into their seats. The shot barely hit the post and glanced into the net.

''The goal set the tone for the opening 25 minutes and Akron was very good,'' Wiseman said in a WMUBroncos.com story. ''We're probably a bit lucky we didn't concede a second goal.''

The Broncos' intensity picked up about a million notches in the second half as they pressed the attack for the entire 45 minutes. In the 55^th minute, WMU gained the equalizer when junior defender Jonathan Robinson ripped a shot from the left, just outside the box, and it hit the post and bounced in.

Western continued the pressure for the rest of the game, having several quality shots on goal, but couldn't get the winner.

With one of the top defenses and offenses in the nation, this season has been one to remember for Western Michigan.

''You have to pitch shutouts if you want to make a deep run in the tournament and I think with the players we had coming back as well as the newcomers, this team was meant to play for a championship,'' Shannon said.

The season didn't exactly start off with a bang, though. Western Michigan was shut out by Butler, 2-0, in the first game of the season.

''After the Butler game, we just had to come in with a different mindset,'' Shannon said. ''We just had to have a good game plan for every game, then we saw results with clean sheets, everyone got hot with some goals and assists and we just drove off that.''

The top five-point leaders for the Broncos are all seniors. Sharp is first with 25 points, then comes Conerty with 16 points, Nimick and Sing with 15 points each and Melaragni with 14 points. Sharp's nine goals leads that category.

''Being part of the front line with Mike and Charlie has been a lot of fun,'' Sing said. ''We've scored a lot of goals and we've given each other opportunities to score.

''And our back line has been unreal. They are the backbone of the team and allow us attackers to be more aggressive in the front.''

Morse is tied for first in the nation with 11 shutouts. Morse and the rest of the defense played an outstanding game in holding Akron out of the net for the game's final 87 minutes. And also for holding the Zips to just one goal in the earlier game.

It all adds up to another good game against Akron on Saturday, Nov. 12 at 1 p.m at FirstEnergy Stadium.