Oct. 30, 2000

Chicago, Ill. - The UIC soccer team defended its Midwestern Collegiate Conference regular-season title impressively this fall as it repeated the feat just over a week ago. Now, tomorrow afternoon, the Flames begin defense of their MCC Tournament title as they take on Cleveland State in the quarterfinals at 1:00 p.m. at Flames Field.

The Flames, with their first-place regular-season conference finish, will be the tournament's #1 seed and will enjoy the home-field advantage throughout the tourney as well.

Head Coach Sasha Begovic and his Flames, however, might have been just as happy to take their show on the road for the MCC Tournament as in years past. UIC is 5-2 at home, but undefeated on the road with a 6-0-1 record.

"The tournament is wide open this year - much more so than last year," Begovic said. "After losing at home to Green Bay and Western Michigan, my confidence has been shaken a bit. We dominated in both games, but couldn't put the ball in the net. However, if things go as they normally do for us, we should win."

The Flames bring a 13-3-2 overall record into the match while enjoying a five-game winning streak against Cleveland State, including a 4-0 win in Chicago earlier this month. The Vikings, who enter tomorrow's outing on an eight-game losing streak, are 3-12-1 for the year.

UIC, which has alternated between goalies Chris Jamal (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) and Scott Greene (Hartland, Mich./Hartland), would like nothing better than a repeat performance of last year's post-season action when they allowed just one goal, an own-goal, in the three games en route to their first-ever MCC Tournament championship.

On the offensive side, last year's tourney run featured eight different goal scorers in the trio of games. In order for UIC to make a bid for its second straight NCAA Tournament appearance, it will need that kind of balanced attack again this year. The Flames were able to spread the scoring around during the regular season as seven different players tallied at least two goals during the year, with forwards Eric Lukin (Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg) and Jakob Stasko (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln-Way) leading the pack with 12 goals and 10 goals, respectively.