[resolvido]Servlet não grava data!

HTTP Status 500 - 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
type Exception report
message 
description The server encountered an internal error () that prevented it from fulfilling this request.
exception 
java.lang.NullPointerException
	java.text.SimpleDateFormat.parse(Unknown Source)
	java.text.DateFormat.parse(Unknown Source)
	controle.InserirCliente.doPost(InserirCliente.java:33)
	javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:637)
	javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)
note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the Apache Tomcat/6.0.29 logs.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apache Tomcat/6.0.29

import java.io.IOException;
import java.sql.Connection;
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import modelo.Cliente;
import dao.FabricaConexao;
import dao.JDBCClienteDAO;
 public class InserirCliente extends javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet implements javax.servlet.Servlet {
   static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
   	public InserirCliente() {
		super();
	}   	
	protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
	}  	
	protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
		String nome = request.getParameter("nomeCliente");
		String endereco = request.getParameter("endCliente");
		String nascimentoSt = request.getParameter("dataNascimento");
		Date date = null;
		try {
			date = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy").parse(nascimentoSt);
		} catch (ParseException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
		Cliente InserirCliente = new Cliente();
		InserirCliente.setNomeCliente(nome);
		InserirCliente.setEndCliente(endereco);
		InserirCliente.setDataNascimento(date);
		
		FabricaConexao fabrica = new FabricaConexao();
		Connection conexao = fabrica.fazConexao();
		JDBCClienteDAO dao = new JDBCClienteDAO(conexao);
		dao.inserir(InserirCliente);
		fabrica.fecharConexao();
}}