RIVER FOREST -- On what was a rainy afternoon in the Chicagoland area, North Park (1-1, 0-0) faced off against the Dominican University Stars (0-1, 0-0) in a 2pm matinee at Dominican's West Campus Field.

A quiet first half from both teams was upended when the Stars' Logan Shanks scored the match's first goal in the 34th minute.  Two assists were credited on the play as Mackenzie Cuddihy sent in the corner kick that was received by Liliana Arechiga, where she then passed it off to Shanks for the goal.  Dominican controlled the pitch from the start, racking up eight shots to North Park's one, with five of those being on goal along with two corner kick opportunities.  Despite the goal before the half, senior keeper Paige MacRitchie tallied four saves for the Vikings. 

The second half seemed prime to be more of the same from both teams, until junior forward Caroline Sjøstedt navigated what seemed like the entirety of the field down to the Stars' box where she sent in a long shot from the left corner of the box just over the outstretched hand of the Stars' keeper in the 58th minute. 

With the score at 1-1 in the late stages of the match, Dominican gained the edge over North Park as Natalia Lopez nailed a free kick to the top right corner from just outside of the Vikings' box to take a 2-1 lead in the 81st minute. 

With the clock ticking down, North Park had minimal opportunities on the Dominican half of the pitch to try and tie the match back up at two apiece.  The Stars held on for the 2-1 victory.

The Vikings' resolve was apparent however, after notching only one shot in the first half they end the match with six shots with five of those being on goal, while MacRitchie still managed to have an impressive eight saves.  Freshman midfielder Sofia Svensson saw both of her shot attempts be on target as well as sophomore midfielder Isabellah Avila and junior Maja Applequist both obtaining one shot of goal respectively.  However, it was Stars keeper Meadow Pratt's four saves that aided in Dominican securing the victory. 

What's Next?

North Park's next match will be against on Saturday, September 6th at 5pm, making the trip to Dubuque, Iowa.  After that, the Vikings will host St. Norbert College on Wednesday, September 10th at 5:30pm.