April 15, 2009

River Forest, IL - The Dominican University women's soccer team released its Fall 2009 schedule with the Stars opening the season at home on September 1, as they host Elmhurst College for a 5:00 p.m. kickoff. The Stars open the season with three non-conference opponents that went a 32-19-4 last fall, including the home match against Elmhurst and road matches at University of Dubuque and Augustana College.

Dominican, after finishing 10-2-0 in the Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) last season, will open the 2009 conference season on September 11 at Maranatha Baptist Bible College in Watertown, Wis. That opens a string of five straight NAC contests for the Stars including home matches against neighborhood rival Concordia University Chicago, Marian University and Wisconsin Lutheran College.

After a non-conference tilt at the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin's (CCIW) North Park University on October 3, the Stars return to a stretch of three NAC contests capped by a meeting with the Aurora University Spartans, the 2008 NAC Regular Season champions, on Wednesday October 14 at Dominican. The Stars then play host to the Illinois Wesleyan University Titans on Saturday, October 17. Last season, the Titans earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Women's Soccer Championships as the CCIW runner-up, falling to eighth ranked Washington University in penalty kicks in the second round.

Dominican closes out the 2009 regular season with back-to-back conference road games at Edgewood College, last year's NAC Tournament champions, on October 26 and then at Alverno College on October 28 before the NAC Tournament opens play on October 31.

In three seasons in the NAC, the Stars have finished in third place each of the last two seasons and finished the regular season in fourth place in 2006, the conference's inaugural season. In the NAC Tournament, the Stars advanced to the championship game in 2007 but fell in the semifinals in both the 2008 and 2006 seasons.