River Forest, Ill. – The fall is inching to the final stages, with both soccer teams clinching a berth to the NACC Conference Tournament. Women's Volleyball wrapped up their non-conference schedule, along with two conference matches this past week.

Men's Soccer competed in two big conference matches this week. The first being on the road at Benedictine University on Wednesday night. The Stars struck the first goal of the match in the 53^rd minute with Senior Tristen Banquil scoring his 6^th goal of the season, with Junior Jonathan Almaguer assisting on the goal. The Eagles found the equalizer in the 83^rd minute, and the game finished at 1-1. In the second game of the week, DU welcomed Wisconsin Lutheran in a match that gave the winner the upper hand to the playoffs. Dominican struck first in the 15^th minute as Banquil scores from the penalty spot, thanks to a handball in the box. The Stars held on to the 1-0 lead for the remainder of the match and clinched the 8^th spot in the NACC Conference tournament. DUMSOC will head down Division Street to take on the Cougars of Concordia Chicago on Wednesday afternoon. The kick-off is set for 2:00 p.m. The Stars will then head to the #1 seeded team in the conference for Sunday for the quarterfinal match. The team, time, and location are all still up in the air for the quarterfinal match.
 
Women's Soccer clinched a playoff spot coming into this previous week, but the job is not done with an attempt to get the best possible seed in the tournament. In the first match of the week, DU won 5-0 in a second half goal scoring frenzy against Benedictine. Freshman Riley Brooks scored the only goal in the first half. Juniors Sarai Gomez, Tia Garr, and Presley Coles all scored second-half goals. Coles scored back-to-back goals within 30 seconds of each other. The Stars then welcomed WLC on senior day. DUWSOC honored three seniors on Saturday, Rachelle Pinto, Meghan Wilhite, and Mackenzie Cuddihy. The Warriors were on the verge of spoiling the senior day celebration until essentially the last kick of the game when Freshman Grace Durante scored to give DU a 1-0 win. Dominican will welcome rivals Concordia Chicago on Wednesday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. The seeding situation is simple for DUWSOC win they are the 2nd seed, lose or draw, they can fall all the way to the fourth seed. The Stars will then host a quarterfinal match on Halloween at West Campus Field. The time and team is still to be determined.

Women's Volleyball had a busy week with three matches this past week, including the non-conference wrap-up at Beloit. The first match was against the Buccaneers in DU, who lost 3-1 on the road. Junior Ella Murray and Senior Kathryn Ksiezak led the team with 6 kills in this match. The Stars welcomed the Spartans of Aurora University to the Igini Sports Forum on Thursday night. Aurora was receiving votes in the national poll at the time of this match and won 3-0. Sophomore Karolina Stonkus was the leader in the pack for DU with 5 kills in the match. In the final match of the week, Dominican headed to Milwaukee to play Wisconsin Lutheran, where the Warriors won 3-0. Sophomore Olivia Pollak and Senior Jillian Ross each had 4 kills in the match. DUWVB will be in the Igini Sports Forum for both of their matches this week. The first being Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. as the Falcons of Concordia Wisconsin, come to town. On Saturday afternoon Dominican will host Marian University as a part of their senior day celebration.

Men's and Women's Cross Country had a great week preparing for the NACC conference meet on November 7^th.


Stars of the Week for the week of October 19^th to October 25th:

Junior Presley Coles of the Women's Soccer team earned Star of the Week. Coles has been a huge factor for Dominican this season, and she showed out this past week, scoring 2 goals and collecting an assist while earning 5 shots.
 
Junior Jonathan Almaguer of the Men's Soccer team earned Star of the Week. Almaguer has made incredible strides this season in the midfield for the Stars, and this week he played all 180 minutes with an assist and 2 shots on goal.


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