On Saturday a pair of familiar foes will face off for the 2015 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) Men's Soccer Tournament Championship, with the Dominican University Stars (12-4-3, 6-2-2 NACC) traveling to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to face the MSOE Raiders (13-4-1, 8-2-0).
 
"This year has been good for us," said Erick Baumann, reflecting on his 21^st season as the Stars' head coach. "It's really given all of us an opportunity to reflect on all the success our program has had and put things into perspective.  Success doesn't repeat itself because of who you are. It's something that needs to continue to be earned from one day to the next."
 
The sides have developed quite a history since 2005, meeting 15 times, including four postseason matches that include the 2009 and 2014 NACC Tournament championship matches.  Dominican is 14-1-0 all-time against the Raiders but MSOE's one win was a 1-0 decision in the 2014 NACC Tournament title game, exactly 364 days ago from Saturday's matchup.
 
Nine of the last 11 meetings between the Stars and Raiders have been decided by one goal dating back to 2009, including Dominican's 1-0 win over the Raiders during the 2015 regular season.  Dominican held a slight advantage in shots, 10-8, with the Stars' Zack Venzon (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) finding the back of the goal in the 72^nd minute on a volley from 19-yards out for the lone score in a match that featured 33 fouls and three cautions.
 
Saturday's matchup pits the conference's top offense against its best defense.  MSOE enters Saturday's action averaging 3.3 goals per game behind the NACC Offensive Player of the Year, Logan Andryk.  Andryk, coupled with his brother Braden on the MSOE side, were the top two scorers in the conference in 2015, scoring 19 goals apiece with Logan adding 17 assists for a total of 55 points while Braden added nine helpers for 47 points.
 
Dominican counters with a defense that posted a 0.65 goals against average anchored by junior goalkeeper Gabriel Gongora (Naperville, Ill.) who was named the NACC's Co-Defensive Player of the Year on Wednesday.  Gongora boasts a 0.73 goals against average and has posted five shutouts while combining on another three.
 
In total, the Stars and Raiders combined for eight All-NACC selections out of the 28 spots between the All-NACC First and Second Teams.  Dominican's Gongora, Venzon and Alex Rohder (Orland Park, Ill.) were named All-NACC First Team alongside MSOE's Logan and Braden Andryk and Mike Skow.  Dominican then placed Manuel Pillado (Elk Grove Village, Ill.) and Nestor Ascencio (Streamwood, Ill.) on the All-NACC Second Team while MSOE's Trevor Cwiok and Sean Tabbert both received honorable mention.
 
"This conference tournament has been a different path for us," said Baumann. "It's the first time we've had to play and advance in a conference quarterfinal game, play and advance on the road in a semifinal game and now play and advance in an away final. This group has responded to the first two challenges; now we need to get it done on Saturday."
 
Dominican advanced to the championship round with back-to-back 3-2 wins over Benedictine University and top-seeded Concordia University Wisconsin Falcons in the NACC quarterfinals and semifinals respectively while MSOE enjoyed a quarterfinal bye before pushing through on penalty kicks after playing to a 3-3 draw with Aurora in semis on Tuesday night.
 
"The biggest surprise for me so far in this tournament has been the number of goals we have conceded more so than the number we have scored," commented Baumann. "We gave up nine goals the entire regular season and have given up four in the first two games of our conference tournament.  We can't keep giving up those goals if we are going to continue to advance this post season."
 
"I've told the guys that it's 90 minutes or so to the NCAA tournament," continued Baumann. "Our focus is now on this one game."