EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- The Western Michigan men's soccer team will play in its second Missouri Valley Conference Championship match in three years on Saturday night.

LAST TIME OUT
Western Michigan came out on top in a match that went down to the wire in a 1-1 tie with the Drake Bulldogs on Wednesday night in the MVC Semifinals. One hundred and ten minutes of play weren't enough for the Broncos and Bulldogs to decide who was going to advance to the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Championship match. It came down to five penalty kicks on either side to settle whose season would continue and whose would end. WMU scored on all five PKs to advance to the championship match while Drake only made four of five.

Junior defender Braxton Arpachinda became the Brown and Gold's points leader with the lone goal of the match for Western Michigan in the 31st minute. Arpachinda now has four goals and four assists on the season for 12 points. He was also the last Bronco to score on his penalty kick, giving WMU the win in Des Moines.

POSTSEASON LEADERS
With a goal on Wednesday night, Braxton Arpachinda became one of two definitive MVC Tournament leaders for the Brown and Gold. Arpachinda is the only Western Michigan player to record a point in both matches of the MVC Tournament after assisting on Roni Sylejmani's goal against NIU. Arpachinda has a team leading three points in post-season play, along with Sylejmani. Sylejmani picked up three points in the Broncos' quarterfinals match against Northern Illinois, assisting on winger Liam Smith's goal and scoring a goal of his own.

SERIES HISTORY
Saturday's MVC Championship match will be just the second meeting in postseason action between the Brown and Gold and the Purple Aces. The only other MVC postseason match between the two came last year in the quarterfinals. UE bested Western Michigan in double overtime on a goal in the final three minutes of OT.

Outside of postseason play, the Broncos have faced Evansville 11 times with a 1-8-2 record. Saturday's match will be the second of the year at Arad McCutchan Stadium for WMU. The Aces took the regular season contest with a 2-0 shutout of Western Michigan. UE was one of only two teams able to shutout the Broncos during Valley play. The other team was Northern Illinois, which WMU bested 2-0 in the quarterfinals.

SCOUTING THE PURPLE ACES
Evansville comes into the championship match as the favorite with the number one seed. The Aces put on a dominating performance in their MVC Semifinals match against UIC, winning 4-1 after getting a bye during the quarterfinals. UE was handsomely rewarded for its conference play in postseason awards from Valley coaches. Evansville has the newly minted Goalkeeper of the Year in sophomore Michal Mroz, the Defensive Player of the Year in sophomore Martin Wurschmidt, the Freshman of the Year in Andres Escudero, and the Coaching Staff of the Year in Head Coach Robbe Tarver and Assistant Coaches Matt Melzer, Orry Killam, and Evan Dekker.

The Aces are led by Freshman of the Year Escudero on the pitch. The first-year player has scored 11 goals on the season to be ranked 14th nationally and one of only two freshmen in the Top 20. Escudero has also added two assists on the season for a total of 24 points to be second in the MVC and 26th nationally. Goalkeeper Michal Mroz is also nationally ranked for UE. The sophomore is 48th in the nation in goals against average at 0.947 and 46th in shutouts with two. But Evansville's Achilles heel this season has been fouls, as they lead the Valley with 46 yellow cards and are ranked sixth nationally.