Nov. 1, 2007

River Forest, Ill. - The Dominican University men's soccer team is set to host the Aurora University Spartans for the 2007 Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) Tournament Championship on Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on Dominican's West Campus Soccer Field and admission to the event is free.

The two are no strangers, having met a total of 11 times over the last eight seasons since Dominican joined the NCAA Division III, including three conference tournament matchups and one NCAA Division III National Tournament meeting. The last time the Stars met for a conference championship was back in 2004 when the two teams battled to a scoreless tie in the championship game of the Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference (NIIC) Tournament with Aurora claiming the conference crown in penalty kicks, 5-4.

Earlier this season, the Stars and Spartans battled to a 1-1 tie through two overtimes on Dominican's West Campus Field on October 3. The tie was the only blemish on the Stars record throughout the conference regular season, as they posted a 9-0-1 record in NAC play to claim the top-seed in the conference tournament. The Stars then advanced to the NAC title game with a 3-1 win over Concordia University (WI) on Wednesday in a rematch of the 2006 NAC Championship contest. Aurora finished the conference regular season with a record of 8-0-2 and advanced to the conference championship game with a 3-2 win in penalty kicks over Edgewood College on Wednesday after the two teams played to a 1-1 draw through two overtimes.

On the year the Stars are 15-3-1, having won 15 of their last 17 contests. In the final NCAA Division III Central Region poll of the 2007 season, released on Wednesday, the Stars were ranked sixth in the region and in search of their sixth at-large bid to the NCAA Division III Men's Soccer National Tournament in as many years.