Dominican men's soccer advances to NAC championship game
River Forest, Ill. -- The Dominican University men's soccer team advanced to the Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) Tournament Championship on Wednesday defeating the Edgewood College Eagles 4-2 in a shootout after the two teams played to a scoreless tie for 110 minutes of play.

Sophomore goalkeeper Piotr Sliwa (Chicago, IL) came up huge for the Stars, recording five saves during regulation and the two overtime periods and then stopped two of Edgewood College's shooters in the shootout.

Junior defender Elvin Perez (Chicago, IL), the Stars' fifth shooter, netted the shootout-winner for the Stars after sophomores Matt Kochanowski (Arlington Heights, IL) and Plamen Pamukov (Addison, IL) and freshman Stan Micic (Mount Prospect, IL) converted their penalty kick attempts in the first, second and fourth rounds of the shootout respectively.

Statistically, the Stars held a 14-6 advantage in shots and a 4-0 advantage in corner kicks but failed to tally a goal for just the second time all season. Defensively, the shutout was the fifth consecutive shutout for the Stars and the team's 11th shutout of the season. Sliwa recorded his fifth shutout of the season and he has not allowed a goal in the last 452 minutes he has played in goal for the Stars, lowering his goals against average to 0.38.

The Stars will now face the Concordia University (WI) Falcons in the NAC Tournament Championship on Saturday, November 4 at Dominican's West Campus Field at 1:30 p.m. The Stars defeated the Falcons 4-1 on September 23, but since then Concordia has posted a 10-1-1 record and have recorded nine straight shutout victories, including a 1-0 win over Aurora University in a NAC semifinal match on Wednesday.

Courtesy of Dominican University, Sports Information Department, November 2, 2006.