The Dominican University women's soccer team earned at least a share of the first Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) regular season championship on Saturday afternoon with a 2-0 win over the Wisconsin Lutheran College Warriors. With the win, the Stars improve to 15-2-0 on the season and 10-0-0 in conference play with one regular season contest remaining on the 2018 schedule, a matchup at Illinois Tech on Wednesday night.
"It is awesome that we were able to come in and take care of business today and win our first regular season conference championship in program history," said Carlos Carrillo, the Stars' fifth-year head coach. "The conditions were brutal but we didn't let that determine the outcome. We controlled the match and scored a pair of nice goals and it is always great to keep a clean sheet. I have been proud of the team's focus and attention to detail throughout the last 15 matches and we need to keep that going on Wednesday to earn the top spot in the conference tournament."
The Stars completed dominated possession, holding the Warriors without a shot while peppering Rosanna Mazzulla with 23 shots, putting nine on goal including the two goals.
Jackie Viola netted the game-winner, beating Mazzulla in the tenth minute after
Daniela Tovar-Miranda's corner kick service bounced through traffic before finding the foot of the Dominican senior. For Viola, the goal was the second of the season.
Dominican then added an insurance tally in the 68
th minute when
Josseline Williams banged a shot off the near post that rolled across the goal mouth all the way to the back side where freshman
Holli Cochran knocked it in for her 13
th goal of the season.
The Dominican back line was rock solid, helping senior goalkeeper
Pamela Ruiz pick up her second shutout of the season. The Dominican defense now boasts a 0.29 goals against average and has not allowed a goal in 1,374 minutes of game action dating back to September 3.
On Wednesday night at Illinois Tech, the Stars can wrap up the top spot and home field advantage throughout the 2018 NACC Tournament with a tie or a win. Kickoff is slated for 7:00 p.m. in the matchup of the top two teams in the conference.