The Dominican University women's soccer team returned to the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) semifinals for the second straight season, falling to the MSOE Raiders 3-2 on Wednesday afternoon at West Campus Field.
 
Dominican outshot the visiting Raiders 19-7 but MSOE's Mary McFee made six saves and the Stars hit a crossbar while MSOE put five shots on goal and scored on three restart opportunities.
 
"We created enough opportunities," commented Dominican's second-year head coach Carlos Carrillo, "but gave up some pretty bad goals.  We made some mistakes, and against a good team like that, they'll capitalize.  They put one more away than we did."
 
The Stars took an early lead as Kelli Iovino (Arlington Heights, Ill.) notched her 20^th goal of the season in just the seventh minute of play.  Iovino ripped a low shot inside the far post from 20-yards out after MSOE failed to clear their defensive third.
 
MSOE answered seven minutes later when a Dominican foul gave the Raiders a restart along the endline about five yards off the sideline.  Becca Keller's service found Carley Mitus' head.  Mitus was able to drive a shot past Dominican's Sara Stepanovich (Des Plaines, Ill.) who came off her line trying to punch the ball out of the six-yard box.
 
The Raiders pulled in front in the 31^st minute when Maria Schumacher's corner kick service found Natalie Gayner at the front post and Gayner flicked the ball into Dominican's goal for her sixth goal of the season.
 
Dominican regrouped and answered less than four minutes later when Taylor Adler (Shorewood, Ill.) drew a penalty as she dribbled through the Raiders' box and the senior finished the PK for her 14^th strike of the season.
 
The score remained even into the 56^th minute when Kelsey Hailey's free kick tipped off the gloves of Stepanovich and trickled into Dominican's goal.
 
The Stars had a number of chances moving forward, including Tania Paez's (Chicago, Ill.) shot that rattled the crossbar in the 75^th minute after McFee stopped Iovino from point blank distance.
 
The loss dropped the Stars to 12-6-0 for the 2015 season, going 9-1-0 during the NACC regular season to finish second in the regular season standings.  MSOE improves to 14-6-0 and moves to the NACC Championship match where they will host the Aurora University Spartans who advanced past the top-seeded Concordia Wisconsin Falcons on penalty kicks Wednesday afternoon.