The Dominican University women's soccer team locked up the 2018 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) regular season championship on Wednesday night, closing out an unblemished conference regular season with a 3-0 win over the Illinois Tech Scarlet Hawks on the road.  The win is the Stars' 16^th straight shutout victory, completing a conference season that saw the Stars go 11-0-0 in conference play, outscoring their conference foes 43-0 while surrendering just two shots per game.
 
"I can't begin to explain how proud I am of this team," said Carlos Carrillo, the Stars' fifth-year head coach. "We came out with passion and a desire to execute our game plan and did exactly that. From start to end we worked and did not allow our opponent to do anything offensively. We controlled the game and scored some beautiful goals."
 
Freshman Holli Cochran jump started the Dominican attack in the eighth minute, after Daniela Tovar-Miranda played a long ball up and over the Illinois Tech back line that Cochran was able to run down, taking one touch towards the goal before beating Catherine Klemp with a low shot.
 
Nine minutes later, Cochran struck for her second goal of the match and 15^th of the season.  Josseline Williams connected with Cochran's feet with just one defender to beat.  Cochran ran straight at the defender before cutting to her left before slipping a shot to the right post.
 
Dominican outshot the Scarlet Hawks 5-1 over the first half, holding 2-0 advantage at the break before putting the match away just two minutes into the second when Williams tallied her conference-leading 23^rd goal of the season.
 
Dominican finished the match with a 12-2 advantage in shots, putting five shots on frame while allowing just one through to Abbey Brown who picked up her 11^th shutout of the season, lowering her league-best goals against average to 0.37.
 
"Today was another memorable moment for our team and program," said Carrillo of his team's first regular season conference championship in program history. "We can enjoy and celebrate this accomplishment tonight, but tomorrow we move forward, looking to work towards our next goal, winning the conference tournament and earning a spot in the national tournament."
 
As the top seed for the 2018 NACC Women's Soccer Tournament, Dominican will sit idle this weekend, awaiting the outcome of Saturday's NACC quarterfinal matches before beginning to prep for Tuesday's conference semifinal.