Nov. 2, 2007

Box Score

River Forest, Ill. - The Dominican University Stars advanced to the 2007 Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) Women's Soccer Tournament Championship with a 2-1 win over Edgewood College on Thursday night in Madison, Wis.

The Stars, the three-seed entering the conference tournament, took a 1-0 lead in the first half as Mayra Camacho (Summit, IL) connected with Mary Hoemeyer (Hazelwood, MO) for the freshman's third score of the season and second of the NAC tournament in the 43rd minute.

The Stars played with a 1-0 lead into the 74th minute as Camacho picked up her team-leading 14th assist of the season as she crossed a ball through the Edgewood box to freshman Kelsy Holloway (Cape Girardeau, MO) who found the back of the net with what proved to be the game-winning goal. The goal was Holloway's fifth score of the season and second game-winning goal of her freshman campaign.

The Edgewood Eagles tallied their lone score of the game as sophomore Elyse Clouthier notched her 11th score of the season, beating Dominican goalkeeper Jacqui Lani (Green Bay, WI). The goal was the lone score Lani allowed in six shots on goal for the night as the 5'6" sophomore logged five saves in the match.

The win pushed the Stars record to 13-7-0 on the season and propelled the Stars into the conference tournament championship game for the second time in three seasons. The Stars last appearance in a conference championship match came in 2005 as the Stars again dumped Edgewood to advance to the 2005 Lake Michigan Conference (LMC) Tournament Championship where they fell to Lakeland College 2-0.

The Stars have a tough task at hand, facing perennial powerhouse the Aurora University Spartans who advanced to the NAC Championship match with a 2-1 win over Concordia University (WI) on Thursday afternoon. The Stars have played the Spartans a total of ten times since 2000 and have yet to beat the Spartans, posting an overall record of 0-9-1 against Aurora. However, the storied rivalry between the two conference foes includes three overtime contests and four matches decided by one goal, including a 1-0 win for the Spartans earlier this season. The lone tie in the series came in the 2001 Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference Tournament with the Stars advancing to the next round with a 4-2 win in penalty kicks.

The NAC Championship match is scheduled for Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Aurora's AU Field.