Nov. 5, 2000
Box Score
Chicago, Ill. - The top-seeded UIC soccer team captured its second straight Midwestern Collegiate Conference Tournament championship this afternoon following a 3-1 win over #3 UW-Green Bay at Flames Field.
UIC (16-3-2) will now square off against Northeast Conference winner, Fairleigh Dickinson, for a berth into the NCAA Tournament next Saturday, Nov. 11, at 12:00 p.m. in NCAA Play-In action. The Flames, who also earned their second straight MCC regular-season title this fall, will be looking for their second consecutive trip to the "Big Dance" after making their first-ever appearance last year.
"This game was a superb team effort from every guy on the field to every guy down the bench," Head Coach Sasha Begovic said. "We needed a beautiful team effort and certainly got it. To repeat as tournament champions is quite an accomplishment and I couldn't be happier for this group of players. They certainly deserve it."
In today's title game, the two squads played to a scoreless tie through the first 35 minutes of the contest before UIC finally drew first blood at the 35:19 mark. Greg Chrisman (Bloomindgale, Ill./Glenbard North) worked the ball up the field and sent a crossing pass to Bruno Rasich (Lincolnwood, Ill./Niles West), who one-timed it and blasted his second tally of the season into the top right corner of the goal for a 1-0 UIC lead.
The Flames, playing without leading scorer Eric Lukin (Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg), who was red carded in semifinal action on Saturday, then got an important insurance goal in the 78th minute as MCC co-Newcomer of the Year Pablo Melgar (Glendale Heights, Ill./Itecori Bilingual) netted his first collegiate goal off of an assist from Steve Collins (Bloomingdale, Ill./Glenbard North) to put UIC up 2-0.
Melgar's goal proved to be a big one as UW-Green Bay cut into the Flames' lead, 2-1, with a Dennis Detrie goal in the 87th minute. UIC, however, came right back down the field less than a minute later and upped its lead to a two-goal margin once again as Chrisman stole the ball at midfield, went in alone on Phoenix goalkeeper Josh Lynk and beat him to the left for his fourth goal of the season.
UIC goalkeeper Chris Jamal (Palatine, Ill./Palatine), who shutout the Phoenix during his 85 minutes in goal this afternoon, was named the MCC Tournament most valuable player. During the Flames' three tournament games, Jamal held the opposition scoreless in 240 minutes of action, made 10 saves, including a penalty kick against UW-Milwaukee yesterday, while picking up wins nine, 10 and 11 on the season.
Joining Jamal on the MCC All-Tournament Team was Chrisman, defenseman Jay DeMerit (Green Bay, Wis./Bay Port), defenseman Joe Morelli (Holly, Mich./Brother Rice) and Rasich.
