Nov. 3, 2007

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River Forest, Ill. - The Dominican University Stars clinched the 2007 Northern Athletics Conference Men's Soccer Tournament Championship on Saturday with a 2-0 win over the Aurora University Spartans, the two seed in the tournament.

The two teams played to a scoreless tie into the 46th minute when the Stars' Juan Saldaña (O'Fallon, MO) got taken down inside the Spartans' box and the Stars were awarded a penalty kick. Junior Plamen Pamukov (Addison, IL) beat the Spartans' keeper on the ensuing penalty kick to give the Stars a 1-0 advantage.

The Stars retained the 1-0 lead into the 86th minute when Dominican's Stan Micic added an insurance goal for the Stars with assists on the play from Nicolas Toro (St. Louis, MO) and Jose Miranda (Chicago, IL).

The Stars controlled possession throughout the contest, outshooting their NAC foe by a 20-4 margin and holding an 8-1 advantage in corner kicks

Junior goalkeeper Piotr Sliwa (Chicago, IL) picked up his ninth shutout of the season, recording one save in the process.

The win improved the Stars' overall record to 16-3-1 on the 2007 campaign, picking up their second consecutive NAC Tournament Championship and their 11th conference championship in 13 seasons under Head Coach Erick Baumann. The Stars will now wait to receive word from the NCAA selection committee on Monday morning for the 2007 NCAA Division III Men's Soccer National Tournament. The Stars are looking for their sixth at-large bid to the tournament in as many years. The brackets for the National Tournament will be announced Monday morning at 10:00 a.m. (CT) at www.ncaasports.com.