WALTHAM, Mass. -- The Eastern Connecticut State University women's soccer team had little difficulty when it opened the season with a pair of relatively easy non-conference shutout wins in the first week of the season, but struggled in an early-season test in a 5-0 non-conference loss to Brandeis University Saturday afternoon at Gordon Field.

Against Brandeis (2-1-1), the inability to score is nothing new for Eastern (2-1-0), which has now been shut out in five of the last seven meetings with the Judges, a solid New England contender which was ranked among the USC New England Top 10 every week in 2019.

Since beating Brandeis at Waltham in overtime in 1989, Eastern has been outscored 11-0 in three losses and a scoreless tie since 1991.

Following a scoreless first 20 minutes, Brandeis scored twice in just over two minutes, with senior Juliette Carreiro assisting on sophomore Sydney Lenhart's first goal of the year and senior Makenna Hunt's third.

Early in the second half, the Judges put the game away with another quick scoring spurt that netted them three goals in a span of 7:30.

Brandeis outshot Eastern, 30-2 and amassed a 12-2 advantage in corner kicks. Eastern senior Alexis Tyrrell (Torrington) made four saves in 68 minutes and sophomore Emily Wallace (Smithtown, NY) finished up without a save over the final 22 minutes.

Eastern opens its Little East Conference season Saturday, hosting the University of Massachusetts Boston at 3 p.m. at Rick McCarthy Field. As the No. 4 tournament seed in 2019, Eastern was eliminated, 2-0, by top seeded host UMass Boston, which went on to its first LEC playoff title. UMass Boston is ranked first in the 2021 LEC pre-season poll, Eastern third.