News Release
Spartan Women�s Soccer NCAA Bound
Aurora University�s women�s soccer team will represent the Northern Athletics Conference in the 2007 NCAA Division III Women�s Soccer Championships. The Spartans received a Pool B berth, one of three in the country, and will travel to the University of Chicago on Saturday, November 10, 2007, to take on the host Maroons. Game time has been set for 11:00 a.m.
The Spartan Women�s Soccer program, under the direction of Head Coach Kanute Drugan, will make its fifth NCAA Division III Women�s Soccer Championships appearance in the last seven seasons and third in consecutive seasons. In their previous appearances, AU is 0-4 with defeats coming in 2006 against Wheaton College (2-0), 2005 against University of Chicago (4-0), 2002 against Loras College (5-1) and 2001 at Lawrence University (2-1).
AU enters the opening round of the NCAA tournament on a 19-game win streak and has scored a goal in all 22 contests. The last blemish on the Spartans schedule came at the hands of Wheaton College (5-1) on September 4. AU captured the Northern Athletics Conference championship with a 12-0 regular season record and went 2-0 in the NAC tournament. On the season, the Spartans out-scored their opponents 77 to 14 (22 games). The Spartans women finished the regular season with a 19-2-1 overall record and captured their ninth conference title in the last 13 seasons.
This season, AU has set or tied numerous school records including new marks in season wins (19), shutouts (13), consecutive wins (19) and consecutive games with a goal (22). Leading the way for the Spartan women this season are sophomore forward Jessica Novickas (Highland Park, IL/Highland Park HS) with 18 goals, six assists and five game winning goals; junior forward Allison Bailey (Dixon, IL/Dixon HS) has 12 goals, nine assists and four game winning goals; sophomore midfielder Nikki Counsell (Oconomowoc, WI/Oconomowoc HS) has four goals and 10 assists; and sophomore goalkeeper Jenny Jarvis (Naperville, IL/Naperville Central HS) has a 18-2-1 record with 56 saves, 12 shutouts (school single season record) and a 0.67 goals against average.
The Spartans are one of 60 teams in the 2007 Championship Field. Thirty-eight conferences were awarded automatic qualification for the 2007 championship. Four teams were selected from Pool B (where the Spartans were sepected), which consists of independent institutions, and institutions that are members of conferences that do not meet the requirements for automatic qualification. The final 18 berths were reserved for Pool C, which are institutions from automatic-qualifying conferences that are not the conference champion and any remaining Pool B teams.
Four teams will receive first-round byes. Four two-team first-round matches will be played to determine the teams that advance to the second round to play the four teams that received a first-round bye. Twelve four-team sites will conduct first- and second-round play on the first weekend of the championship, November 9-10 or 10-11, 2007. Second-round winners will advance to one of four sectional sites November 16-17 or 17-18, 2007.
All games, except the semifinals and final, will be played on the campuses of competing institutions. Winners of the four sectionals will advance to the semifinals November 23-24 at Disney�s Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
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Submitted 2007-11-05 12:33:36 by Aurora University Sports Information Department
