The Dominican University women's soccer team (17-0-4) is headed to the NCAA Division III Women's Soccer Championships for the first time in program history after topping the MSOE Raiders, 2-0, on Saturday evening in Milwaukee to claim the program's first Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) Tournament Championship and earn the league's automatic bid to the national tournament.
 
"All year we have fed off of quick starts and we knew that it would be important to have a good start to the match and score an early goal so we could settle in," commented Carlos Carrillo, the Stars' head coach in his fourth season.  "Once we got on the board, our defense has been so solid, we put ourselves in a good position."
 
Dominican opened the scoring in the 11^th minute of play, converting on a penalty kick after Josseline Williams drew a foul in the box.  Williams, the league's leading scorer on the season with 31 goals, calmly buried the ensuing penalty kick to give the Stars the early lead.
 
Playing with the lead and confidence, the Stars continued to keep the pressure on Raiders throughout the first half, doubling up MSOE in shots, 6-3, and forcing the Raiders' Abbie Lorenz to make three first half saves.
 
Early in the second half, the Raiders threw numbers forward and put the game on Dominican's back line until the Stars made an adjustment to even out the possession.
 
In the 70^th minute, it was the host Raiders that benefitted from a foul in the box, drawing a penalty of their own.  On the ensuing penalty kick, Missy Schultz went wide of the right post to keep the score 1-0.
 
Riding the momentum from the missed penalty, a Dominican counter in the 76^th minute extended the Stars lead as Tania Paez was able to beat Lorentz low to the far post, slipping a shot for her eighth goal of the season.
 
Dominican then closed out the shutout with goalkeeper Abbey Brown making her fourth save of the match at the back post in the final minute to close out Dominican's 16^th clean sheet of the season.
 
Shots for the night ended up even 11-11 with Dominican putting five on goal and the Raiders putting four on goal.  The Stars did hold a heavy advantage in corner kicks, earning 10 corners while surrendering just five.
 
"I'm so proud of our girls for how they played with composure today," commented Carrillo. "Having gotten to this match before and coming up short, it would have been easy to let the pressure get to us.  Instead we were the aggressor for much of the match minus a short stretch to start the second half and a stretch to close the match."
 
With the win, Dominican extends its unbeaten streak to 21 matches and improves to 17-0-4 on the season, adding to the program's single-season record for wins.
 
"This win should be enjoyed by everyone associated with the program," continued Carrillo. "This is for not only the current team, but for alums and past players, coaches and staff. What an exciting week we have ahead of us."