GORHAM, Maine – The Eastern Connecticut State University punched its ticket to a first-round Little East Conference road contest by surrendering ten consecutive goals in the first half in an 18-11 loss to the University of Southern Maine Saturday afternoon at Hannaford Field.

By squandering an opportunity to host Southern Maine (6-2 5-2 LEC) in a first-round match Tuesday with a win, fifth-seeded Eastern (9-5, 3-4 LEC) will instead travel to meet fourth-seeded Keene State College (5-3) Tuesday at 6 p.m. in a first-round match. The winner will advance to visit top-seeded and unbeaten regular-season champion Western Connecticut Thursday in a playoff semifinal. In mid-April, Eastern lost identical 20-7 decision to Keene and Western at Rick McCarthy Field.

Since winning seven of its first eight, Eastern brings a 2-4 record in its last six regular-season contests into Tuesday's first-round match. Eastern is 7-6 all-time against Keene at the Owl Athletic Complex but is 1-6 against the Owls in its last seven encounters against the hosts.

Heading into Saturday, the Warriors had stopped a three-game skid with overwhelming wins over UMass Dartmouth and Rhode Island College, the bottom-feeders in the LEC with a combined 1-13 conference record. Eastern got off quickly Saturday with two goals in the first two minutes but was quiet the rest of the half, scoring just once in the final three minutes of the frame after the hosts had ripped off ten in a row to run away with the game.

Senior Alex Farley scored six goals to lead Southern Maine to its third straight victory and second in a row against Eastern after the Warriors had won three straight against the Huskies in the series. USM finishes in a three-way tie for second place and will gain the No. 2 seed and a first-round tournament bye.

Featuring the LEC's top two goal-scorers in sophomore Caroline Stent (Weatogue) and senior Tristan Kijak (Windsor) and six 20-goal scorers in all, Eastern's usually balanced offense was stymied by the Huskies, with Kijak and Stent combining for ten of the team's goals and 20 of its 29 shots. The rest of the team had one goal, two assists and nine shots.

Behind sophomore Mackenzie Shrewsbury (Sprague) and Stent – who combined to win 14 draws (eight for Shrewsbury) – Eastern continued to dominate this year this year in the battle of draw controls (+74 advantage in 14 games), but turned the ball over at least 20 times for the fourth time in the last six games.
Graduate student Jennifer Darasz, senior Megan Violette and junior Rachel Shanks  complemented Farley on offense for the Huskies.  Darasz had five goals and one assist, Violette four goals and one assist, and Shanks two goals and three assists.

Senior goalie Mariah Vaillancourt played a strong game for USM, recording 13 saves, while Eastern sophomore goalie Sarah Gallagher (South Windsor) made ten saves.

Stent leads the LEC with 54 goals and is third with 17 assists while Kijak's career-high of 42 goals and 13 assists rank her second in the LEC in the former category. Senior Sydney Hogan (Northford) is the LEC assist leader with 24. Eastern, however, has played at least six more games than every other LEC team.