Nov. 14, 2007

River Forest, Ill. - The Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) released the 2007 Men's Soccer all-conference awards on Wednesday with Dominican University landing six student-athletes on the conference's first and second all-conference teams.

Leading the way for the Stars were senior Elvin Perez (Chicago, IL), junior Matt Kochanowski (Arlington Heights, IL) and freshman Michael Kapusta (Bartlett, IL). Perez was named the NAC's Defensive Player of the Year, Kochanowski the NAC's Co-Offensive Player of the Year and Kapusta the NAC's Rookie of the Year.

Perez, a 5'11" defender, led the Stars to the 2007 NAC regular season and tournament championships with a 9-0-1 record in conference play, posting nine shutouts against conference opponents and a 0.20 goals against average throughout the conference regular season. Assisting Perez on the defense were Piotr Sliwa (Chicago, IL), the Stars' junior goalkeeper, and Rigoberto Barajas (Cicero, IL), a sophomore defender. Sliwa received First Team All-NAC honors while Barajas was named to the All-NAC Second Team.

Kochanowski, the 2006 NAC Player of the Year, paced the Stars' offense with 29 points on seven goals and 15 assists in 10 regular season conference games. Nationally, Kochanowski ranked third in the nation in assists, averaging 0.86 assists per game, and ranked 33rd in the nation in points per game at 2.05 points per contest as he totaled 13 goals and 19 assists in 22 games.

Along with Kochanowski, Dominican's Plamen Pamukov (Addison, IL) and Juan Saldana (O'Fallon, MO) each were named to the NAC All-Conference First Team as midfielders. Pamukov shared the team lead for goals in conference games with Kochanowski and logged five assists in ten conference games for a total of 19 points in NAC play.

Saldana, the Stars' third leading scorer on the season, appeared in just four conference games for the Stars due to injury, but logged six goals and four assists in conference play and nine goals and five assists in 15 games throughout the season.

Kapusta split time in the Stars' midfield and on the team's defense, logging one goal and five assists against NAC opponents and logged one goal and six assists on the season as he started all 22 games for Dominican throughout his freshman campaign. In addition to being named the NAC Rookie of the Year, Kapusta was named to the 2007 NAC All-Rookie Team along with teammate Edwin Rodriguez (Chicago, IL).

On the year, Dominican captured its second consecutive NAC regular season and tournament championships earning the program's sixth straight at-large bid to the NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championship with a 17-4-1 overall record.