MANSFIELD, Conn. – The Eastern Connecticut State University women's soccer team has had marginally better results on the road than at Rick McCarthy Field this year, so settling for a scoreless tie against the bottom team in the Little East Conference Saturday could eventually work in its favor.
 
With one point separating Eastern (6-5-5, 3-2-3 LEC), Castleton University and the University of Massachusetts Boston in the standings on the final day of the regular season Saturday, an Eastern win would have given the Warriors the No. 4 playoff seed and would have provided them with a first-round home game Tuesday.
 
Instead, the Warriors are seeded fifth and will travel to the conference's farthest outpost – Castleton University -- Tuesday for a 7 p.m. elimination game at 7 p.m. at Dave Wolk Stadium.  Castleton (7-10-1, 4-3-1) had a five-match unbeaten (4-0-1) streak ended Saturday against visiting UMass Boston, 1-0, when UMB's Kaylee Haynes' goal four minutes into play stood up despite the Spartans' 19-8 advantage in shots. It was Castleton's fourth 1-0 decision in conference play, and its first loss.
 
Eastern and Castleton played to a 1-1 tie Oct. 8 at McCarthy Field – one of Eastern's record-tying five games that ended in a deadlock this year. Castleton gained the tie when Alexis Billings scored on a header with nine minutes left after junior Mackenzie Teper's (Lisbon) first career goal late in the first half had given the Warriors a 1-0 halftime edge. Eastern is 1-1-1 in LEC regular-season play against Castleton at Dave Wolk Stadum.
 
On the road this year, Eastern has lost only twice in nine starts (4-2-3). Away from home, the Warriors tied Trinity College, 0-0 and edged UMass Boston, 1-0 in back-to-back games in mid-September. At home, Eastern has won only two of seven contests (2-3-2).
 
The Eastern-Castleton winner advances to visit top-seeded regular-season champion University of Southern Maine (15-3-0), which had its bid for a perfect conference regular season spoiled with a 1-0 loss Saturday at Western Connecticut State University, the playoff's No. 2 seed.
 
The tie Saturday ends Eastern's 11-game winning streak against the Corsairs but extends its unbeaten streak against UMass to 27 (26-0-1).  
 
Juniors Emily Wallace (Smithtown, NY) and Rachel Hughes (Columbia) combined for five saves and the team's fourth shutout in the last five games and eighth of the season (three shy of the season record).  A loser of only two of ten decisions this year, Wallace made three saves before giving way to Hughes due to injury midway through the first half. After managing only one shot but controlling play in the first half, the Warriors collected five of their six shots in the game in the second half against UMass senior keeper Kat Hubbard. Hubbard kept the game scoreless in the second half by foiling scoring bids from sophomore team scoring leader Briley Harnois (Attleboro, MA) and junior Lindsay Fishman (South Windsor) with two of her three second-half saves.