MANSFIELD, Conn. -Juniors Chelsea Downer (Colchester) and Daniela Marchitto (Orange) each scored twice and Merheb sisters Jo-Ann and Tamar (Bethel) each scored once as the Eastern Connecticut State University women's soccer team blanked the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 6-0, in a Little East conference match Saturday afternoon at the Mansfield Outdoor Complex. The match was stopped after 80 minutes due to dangerous conditions due to snow.

The Eastern win in the regular-season finale -- coupled with Western Connecticut's 2-0 loss to visiting Keene State -- guarantees Eastern (10-8-0, 6-1-0 Little East) sole possession of second place in the final standings and a first-round tournament bye in this coming week's conference tournament. Keene wins the regular-season title with a 7-0-0 record.

Unofficially, second-seeded Eastern will host a semifinal-round match Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Mansfield Outdoor Complex against the winner of a Tuesday first-round match between No. 6 Plymouth State and No. 3 Western. UMass Dartmouth (7-10-2, 2-4-1 Little East) will unofficially be the No. 5 seed in the tournament and will visit No. 4 seed Massachusetts Boston Tuesday.  Also Thursday, Keene will host the UMass Dartmouth-UMass Boston winner. The highest remaining seed will host the tournament final Saturday.

Marchitto recorded her third multiple-goal match of the season, netting her 13th goal of the year in the 23rd minute to give Eastern a 2-0 lead and her 14th three minutes intot he second half to make it 4-0.

Downer entered the match with one goal but collected the final two of the match. Jo-Ann Merheb, one of four seniors recognized on Seniors' Day before the match, scored her third goal of the year in the tenth minute on an assist from Marchitto and sophomore sister Tamar notched her sixth of the year to make it 3-0 three minutes before halftime.

Senior keeper Theresa Pagnozzi (Waterford) won her first match of the season in her first start, making two saves in the first half to improve her career record to 15-1-4 (the one loss coming in the third round of last year's NCAA tournament).

UMass, winless against Eastern in its last 16 contests (0-15-1), had two legitimate chances to score. With the Corsairs trailing 2-0 with 14 minutes left in the first half,  junior Jillian Van Ness took a hard shot that deflected off an Eastern defender but was re-directed right at Pagnozzi.  Twelve minutes into the second half, freshman Shelby Friedland unloaded a drive from just outside the box, but junior keeper Mackenzie MacLeod (Northfield) timed her leap perfectly and batted the ball over the crossbar.

For the 11th straight year under 12th-year head coach Chris D'Ambrosio, Eastern has now won at least ten matches in a season  and has lost no more than one conference regular-season match for the tenth time in the last 11 seasons.  The team has not finished lower than second or tied for second since D'Ambrosio's first year in 2000.

The Warriors are the defending regular-season champion and Western the defending tournament titlist.-