The Dominican University women's soccer team scored three first half goals to best the Marian University Sabres, 3-0, in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) quarterfinals and will now meet the top-seeded Aurora University Spartans in the NACC Tournament semifinals.
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Kelli Iovino (Arlington Heights, Ill.) netted the what proved to be the game-winner in the 12
th minute when she got on the end of restart service from
Nathalie Mathis (Wauconda, Ill.), sending a header inside the near post for her seventh game-winning goal of the season.
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Dominican then scored a pair of goals in the 35
th minute to put the match away. Iovino got the first goal, knocking in a bouncing ball in front of the goal mouth for her 16
th goal of the season. Just 14 seconds later,
Leah Tednes (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) found
Taylor Adler (Shorewood, Ill.) who lifted a shot under the crossbar for her fourth tally of the season.
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The scores go down as the 17
th fastest consecutive goals for the same team in NCAA Division III women's soccer history.
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The Stars then turned the game over to
Sara Stepanovich (Des Plaines, Ill.) and the Dominican defense that pitched their tenth shutout of the season. Stepanovich faced 14 shots, logging seven saves, to post her fifth shutout of the season. Stepanovich's best save of the match came in the 31
st minute as the Sabres' Mikaila Johnson ripped a shot from 20 yards out that Stepanovich punched over the crossbar.
Dominican did face a flurry of activity late with Marian racking up a pair of prime opportunities in the final minute, but
Kelly Gerwitz (Florissant, Mo.) blocked a shot at the goal line to preserve the clean sheet.
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In total the Stars outshot the Sabres 20-14, putting ten shots on goal.
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The Stars, now 12-7-0 on the year, will be on the road on Tuesday, traveling to Aurora to take on the top-seeded Spartans. Game time is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. at the Spartans' Vago Field. The winner of that match heads to the NACC championship game where the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Women's Soccer national tournament will be on the line. Â