Dominican will play at UW-Whitewater on Saturday in a NCAA first round contest.

Stars men's soccer receive at-large berth to national tournament
RIVER FOREST, Ill. -- The Dominican University Stars will represent the Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) in the 2007 NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championships. The Stars (16-3-2) received one of just four Pool B berths to the national tournament and will travel to Whitewater, Wis. to take on the UW-Whitewater Warhawks (15-2-2) in a First Round matchup on Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. at the Warhawks' Fiskum Field with a second first round matchup featuring Carthage College (13-6-2) and Washington University (Mo.) (13-4-2) following at 1:30 p.m.

The winners of both contests will advance to the second round of the 2007 NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championships and square off at 1:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon at UW-Whitewater. The Dominican University men's soccer program, under the direction of Head Coach Erick Baumann, have received six at-large bids to the national tournament since becoming eligible for NCAA Division III postseason play in the fall of 2002. In that time frame the Stars have a 4-5-2 record in NCAA postseason play, having reached the Elite Eight in 2003 and again in 2006.

The Stars will enter the opening round of the 2007 NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championships with a 16-1-1 record in their last 18 contests after losing the first two games of the season to University of St. Thomas and Hamline University. The Stars won the NAC regular season championship with a 9-0-1 regular season conference record and then captured the NAC Tournament title with a pair of victories in the conference tournament, including a 2-0 win over Aurora University in the title match.

Offensively the Stars rank 22nd in the nation, scoring 3.17 goals per game. Juniors Matt Kochanowski (Arlington Heights, Ill.) and Plamen Pamukov (Addison, Ill.) lead the team along with sophomore Juan Saldaña (O'Fallon, Mo.). Kochanowski led the Stars in points (43) and assists (19) and shared the team lead in goals (12) with Pamukov who also led the team in game-winning goals (5) and ranked second in assists (7).

Defensively, goalkeeper Piotr Sliwa (Chicago, Ill.), a 6'1” junior, anchors the Stars' defense. As a team the Stars boast the nation's 13th-best defense with a 0.44 goals against average.

The Stars fell to the Warhawks 1-0, in the pair's only meeting during the regular season on October 24 in Whitewater. However, the Stars do hold a 3-1-0 record against the Warhawks all-time and have outscored UW-Whitewater 5-2 in the series between the two Central Region powerhouses dating back to 2003.

Courtesy of Dominican University, Sports Information Department, November 5, 2007.