CHICAGO - UIC head men's soccer coach Sean Phillips announced on Monday that Aleksey Korol has been elevated to associate head coach after spending nine seasons as an assistant on the Flames' staff.

"This title change is well deserved," said Phillips. "It properly reflects the trust I have in Aleksey and the responsibilities he has embraced the last several years."

Korol has been instrumental in UIC's success since his arrival in 2006. In his first three seasons, the Flames had what could be deemed as their most successful years in program history with two Horizon League regular-season championships, one Horizon League Tournament championship and runs to the NCAA Second Round in 2006, Elite Eight in 2007 and Sweet 16 in 2008.

Over the last three seasons, Korol has helped UIC capture the Horizon League regular season title twice in addition to setting a slew of program records in 2013, including winningest regular season (15-3-0) and first perfect conference record (7-0-0).

Korol was a strong component in the development of UIC All-Americans Tonci Skroce (2004-06), Pavle Dundjer (2004-07) and Baggio Husidic (2006-08). He has since coached four Horizon League Players of the Year (Skroce, Husidic, Bob Novak, Manny Chavez) and three Offensive Players of the Year (Husidic, Ivan Stanisavljevic, Jorge Alvarez) along with 15 NSCAA All-Region offensive honorees.

During his collegiate career at Indiana, Korol had great success and was named an All-American and Soccer America's Player of the Year following his final season in 1999, while also earning All-Region and Big Ten Player of the Year honors. He helped the Hoosiers reach the College Cup three times and capture back-to-back National Championships in 1998 and 1999.

Korol entered into the professional circuit after graduating and competed in Major League Soccer as well as the United Soccer League before beginning his coaching career, which has seen a combined record of 105-67-28 in nine seasons at UIC and one at Indiana (2009).