It is hard to believe, but the 2009 men's and women's Final Four competition begins in just three days. While the season seems to have just started, eight teams are left to decide the national champion in San Antonio. All the action this weekend can be captured via live video. In the meantime, you can watch highlights of the 2008 men's championship match. The schedule for the weekend:

Women's targeted start times are 12:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. ET
No. 12 Washington U. vs. No. 21 Lynchburg
No. 1 Messiah vs. No. 9 The College of New Jersey

Men's targeted start times are 6:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. ET
No. 1 Messiah vs. No. 13 Williams
No. 14 Dominican vs. Calvin

We'll be doing a series of previews on the upcoming matches, as well as shining the spotlight on the two newcomers this year: Calvin and Dominican.

After getting as far as the Elite Eight in 2006 and bowing out in the second round of the playoffs in 2008, the Stars of Dominican are headed to the Final Four for the first time in program history.

The 19-1-3 Stars, members of the Northern Athletics Conference, have won the conference championship four years in a row. Dominican is located in the western suburbs of Chicago and began its collegiate soccer program in 1988. After time in the NAIA, the Stars are relative newcomers to Division III, becoming eligible for the playoffs within the past decade. This season marks their eighth straight year in the NCAA tournament. After a fourth straight undefeated season in the NATHC, the Stars are now 40-0-1 in regular season conference play with four regular season championships and NATHC Tournament championships.

Stars head coach Erick Baumann played at Dominican, graduating in 1993 and taking over as head coach in 1995. He is 255-61-19 all time at the school and is also the athletic director. During the season, coach Baumann has come to depend on the leadership qualities of his captains, as the 2009 Stars are a very young squad. Dominican has just three seniors, captains Stan Micic, Trinidad Correa, and Juan Saldana, and junior captain Michael Kapusta. Each of these players have started every match this season.

Kaptusta (31 points, nine goals) and sophomore forward Edwin Lagunas (25 points, nine goals) lead the team in scoring this season. Lagunas scored the lone goal in the Stars' second-round win against UW-Whitewater and had a goal in the first round against Elmhurst. Three others have scored eight goals for a team that is very young; Baumann says he starts seven freshmen or sophomores in every match. He certainly can count on the freshmen as Ryan Roberts scored the winner in the first round against area foe Elmhurst and Andy Lynch came up with the golden goal in the 100th minute of a Sweet 16 game at Loras. Roberts has eight goals on the season.

Dominican's only loss on the season was a 1-0 setback at Wheaton back on Sept. 16, while the ties were against Elmhurst, North Park and UW-Whitewater. "To the team, the ties felt a lot like losses," said coach Baumann, "we should have won those games." The lessons learned from those matches became clear as Dominican moved through the balance of the season with little trouble, and proceeded to eliminate Elmhurst and UW-Whitewater from the tournament in the first and second round. Other than Wheaton, those were the only NCAA playoff teams that Dominican had faced during the regular season. But throughout the year, the Stars have played a strong defense, allowing only nine goals all season, and just one in the first half of matches. This strength helped as the postseason developed as the Stars have allowed only one goal in the four matches since the tourney began.

The Stars are anchored by nation's third-ranked defense, posting a 0.38 goals against average in more than 2,100 minutes of play. Goalkeepers Ben Gomez (Bensenville, Ill.) and Maxwell Gutbrod (Slinger, Wis.) have split time for the Stars, although Gutbrod, a sophomore, has gotten the call in each of the last three games and has posted three shutouts. Gutbrod boasts an 8-0-1 record in goal with six shutouts, including three in the NCAA Tournament while Gomez, a junior, holds an 8-1-2 record with four shutouts.

After surrendering four goals in the team's first five contests, the Stars have tightened the screws on defense, allowing just five goals over the team's last 18 contests, spanning 1,681 minutes. Dominican has not allowed two goals in a contest all season, but has scored at least two goals 16 times, outscoring their opponents 70-9 on the season.

Offensively, Dominican has used an arsenal of weapons to replace four-year starters Matt Kochanowski and Plamen Pamukov whom the Stars lost to graduation after the 2008 season. The pair accounted for over a third of the Stars' offense since 2005, totaling 123 goals over four seasons. This year, the Stars' offense features five players with a minimum eight goals and 20 points.