Box Score PROVIDENCE, R.I.— The Eastern Connecticut State University women's lacrosse team got points from 13 different players as the Warriors tuned up for this weekend's Little East Conference showdown with an 18-2 conference victory over downtrodden Rhode Island College Tuesday evening.
Eastern (10-5, 4-1 LEC) faces idle unbeaten conference leader Keene State College Saturday at noon at home with an opportunity to gain a share of its sixth LEC regular-season title in the last ten years – first in five years. Keene is the defending LEC playoff champion and has beaten Eastern the last six times the programs have met.
Regardless of Saturday's outcome, the RIC win unofficially guarantees the Warriors of no worse than the No. 2 seed and a first-round playoff bye into a home semifinal game Thursday. The Warriors last earned a first-round bye when they won the last of five straight regular-season titles in 2011, hosting Western Connecticut in a semifinal playoff win and hosting Keene State in a championship game loss.
In defeating Rhode Island (4-9, 0-5 LEC) for the 17th straight time in the series, the Warriors claimed their tenth overall win in a season for the tenth time in the program's 20-year history and equaled their most conference wins in five years.
Freshman attack Michelina Pinto (Groton) had four goals and three assists, sophomore attack Katie Burke (South Windsor) three goals and two assists and junior midfielder Paige Schneider (East Lyme) three goals and an assist. Burke's assists give her 24 on the season, the ninth-most by a player in a season in program history; Schneider moved to within three goals of 50, with only eight different players having reached that mark at least once in program history; sophomore defender Katie Calnen (Granby) was credited with her first goal of the year and first-year sophomore midfielder Amanda Tourjee (Waterford) picking up her first career point with an assist.
Pinto won six of the team's 15 draws, sophomore midfielder Maggie Bodington (Stratford) winning four draws and four ground balls and first-year sophomore defender Taylor Behn (Amherst, NH) picking up four ground balls.
Junior Taylor Emmerson (Colchester) and freshman Jessica Purick (Riverhead, NY) split time in net, with Emmerson becoming the sixth player in program history to win as many as ten matches in a season at least once.
