Sunday marks the start of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament, and the Benedictine University soccer team will host a familiar foe. For the second straight season, BenU will oppose Edgewood College in the tournament. Game time is set for 2:30 p.m. at the Village of Lisle/Benedictine University Sports Complex.
Benedictine comes into the matchup as the tournament's third seed, possessing a 10-6-2 overall record and an 8-1-1 NACC record. Needing a win on Wednesday at Aurora University to force a three-way tie atop the NACC standings with Milwaukee School of Engineering and Dominican University, BenU tied Aurora 2-2. BenU has not lost over the last five matches (4-0-1), with the last defeat coming against MSOE on October 11. This will be Benedictine's fourth NACC Tournament appearance in the league's nine-year history, as the team is looking for its first-ever NACC Tournament victory.
Also nicknamed the Eagles, Edgewood College earned the tournament's sixth-seed for a second straight season. Last year, Edgewood defeated third-seeded Aurora in a shootout in the First Round and ended BenU's season in the Semifinals before falling to Dominican in the NACC Tournament Championship. Edgewood finished the regular season with a 9-8-1 overall record and 5-5 NACC record, but has qualified for the NACC Tournament eight out of nine seasons and has five wins in tournament history
Edgewood took last season's conference semi-final matchup 2-0 despite BenU outshooting Edgewood 19-9 and attempting 14 second-half shots. However, Benedictine was impressive playing at Edgewood this regular season, earning a 3-0 victory behind goals from
Francisco Delgado,
Santiago Beltran, and
Bobby Kostadinov and assists from
Edgar Reyes and
Eric Lukitsh. Since taking over as Head Coach prior to the 2012 season,
Rich Nassif holds a 2-2 record against Edgewood.
The winner of Sunday's match will advance to the NACC Tournament Semifinals. If Benedictine wins, BenU will play at second-seeded MSOE at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday night, and an Edgewood win would mean Edgewood travels to top-seeded Dominican on Wednesday for a 1:00 p.m. match.
Live statistics, audio, and video will be provided for Sunday's game at
http://portal.stretchinternet.com/benu/.
