October 4, 2016

By Marty Carlino

The Dominican University Women’s soccer team kicked off their 2016 campaign earning victories in two of their first four conference games.

The Stars started the year off by falling short against conference powerhouse Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE), however they bounced right back with a dominating 8-0 victory over the Rockford Regents in their next game.

Dominican jumped all over Rockford, scoring seven first half goals and ultimately winning the game by a score of 8-0 to earn their first conference victory of the season.

Sophomores Nina Izzo and Jackie Viola both scored two goals for the Stars. Dominican was relentless in their attack all game long, putting up 36 shots, 16 of which were on goal.

Dominican continued their strong play, defeating Lakeland College in their next game. The Stars offense was firing on all cylinders again as they outplayed Lakeland to the tune of an 8-0 victory.

Freshman Josseline Williams and Junior Alyssa Martinez both netted two goals of their own for the Stars, while Sophomore Tania Perez and Freshman Madison Pardo both added goals.

The Stars were then tasked with a match against their River Forest rival, Concordia University. Concordia defeated the Stars by a 3-1 score to earn the victory in the first leg of the River Forest Rivalry Cup.

Dominican’s early play has earned several players spots on the conference leaderboards. Sophomore Tania Perez leads the NACC conference with 5 assists on the season. Freshman Josselin Williams ranks third in the conference for total shots on goal with 29 thus far. Sophomore Nina Izzo is right behind Williams, with 27 total shots, earning the fourth spot on the NACC leaderboard.

Dominican will look to be in their best form as seven of their next eight games are NACC matchups.            

carlmart@my.dom.edu