It’s time for the Dominican University community to take note, the Stars’ women’s basketball team has blossomed into a championship caliber team, pulling within one game of claiming the program’s first Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) South Division title on Tuesday evening, topping the Rockford College Regents 60-40 to remain three games ahead of the Benedictine University Eagles in the division race with three regular season games to play.
On Thursday night, the Stars will take their first crack at securing the division crown, as they travel down Division Street to take on neighborhood rival Concordia University Chicago. With a win over the Cougars, the Stars would claim the division championship on their rival’s court and guarantee no worse than a two-seed in the upcoming NAC Women’s Basketball Tournament.
Capturing the division championship will be a historic moment for the Stars and the conference, as Dominican is looking to become the first worst-to-first turnaround in NAC women’s basketball history. Just last season, the Stars were in the cellar of the NAC South, finishing the season 9-16 overall and just 4-14 in the NAC. Tuesday’s victory over the Regents was Dominican’s 17th of the season, the most wins in the program since the 1993-1994 season when the team won the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) and made their fourth straight appearance in the NAIA National Tournament. The Stars now stand at 17-4 on the season and 12-2 in conference play, percentage points behind the North Division’s Concordia Wisconsin and Wisconsin Lutheran for the best record in the NAC.
Thursday’s tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 PM in the Cougars’ Geiseman Gymnasium.
