November 1, 2016

By Christopher Sich

The Dominican University women’s soccer team clinched the third-seed in the upcoming Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) tournament after a 1-0 victory against conference rivals Benedictine University.

The Stars finished the season on a three-game winning streak and look to continue their winning ways in the conference tournament.

“We have progressed a lot as a team especially with such a large freshman class,” said junior and Captain Tania Martinez. “But we have to do our job in order to win and continue our season.”

The stars have grown throughout the season and have built very good team chemistry, but team chemistry doesn’t guarantee victories.

“If we want to win we have to defend really well and we have to execute in the offensive third and score goals,” Senior Ashly Torres said.

The Stars though are prepared to fight regardless of the situation. The Stars have a tight-knit team that get along very well and that always have each other’s backs.

“Even though we have a lot of lower classmen, we are a tight-knit group and I think this has helped out confidence,” said sophomore goalie Pamela Ruiz. “We are a confident team and we have worked hard together throughout the whole season.

Team confidence is important heading into the conference tournament, and the Stars confidence can be in part attributed to Coach Carrillo’s hard work.

“Coach Carrillo has pushed us hard and has helped us work better together as a team,” Ruiz said. “He communicates with us a lot and has helped our communication on the field. We play better when we have good, fluid communication.”

The Stars play Benedictine University again for the first round of the NACC tournament. The game will not easily, but the team has faith that they can win and achieve their goals.

“Our goal is to win our first round game versus Benedictine; we want to take it one game at a time. But our ultimate goals is to win the conference tournament and make it to the NCAA tournament,” Torres said.

On Saturday, Oct. 29 the Stars defeated Benedictine University by a score of 2-0, advancing on to the next round of the conference tournament.

The Dominican University men’s soccer team has also booked their place in the NACC tournament after earning their tenth NACC regular season championship in program history with a 1-1 draw against the Benedictine University Eagles on Wednesday night.

“The past three games we haven’t played to the best our abilities, but we have played well all season so I have confidence that we can succeed in the conference tournament,” Captain Gabriel Gongora said. “I think we can win the conference tournament and make it to the NCAA tournament.”

The Stars now will sit and wait during this weekend’s conference’s quarterfinal games as they await their rivals for the NACC semifinal match. Kickoff is slated for 1:00 p.m., November 2, at West Campus Field.

sichchri@my.dom.edu