BOSTON, Mass. – Junior keeper Emily Wallace (Smithtown, NY) extended her scoreless streak to 194 minutes by equaling her career-high of nine saves as the Eastern Connecticut State University women's soccer team opened its Little East Conference season with a 1-0 victory over the University of Massachusetts Boston Saturday afternoon at Monan Soccer Field.
 
In posting her second straight shutout, Wallace made seven of her saves when Eastern withstood a UMass Boston (0-4-2) onslaught (nine shots) in the first half, and junior forward Alexie Root (Old Saybrook) came off the bench to score the only goal with 17 minutes left.
 
The goal was the first of the season and sixth in the three-year career of Root, who laid a perfectly- placed shot to the far post after getting between the Beacons backline and beating UMB All-LEC senior keeper Maria Spylios, who had backstopped her team's 2019 LEC championship team that finished with a 19-3-1 record. Coming off the bench, Root totaled four of the team's 14 shots, putting three of them on goal.
 
Junior Ashlyn Rogers (Portsmouth, RI) and sophomore Madison Palmer (Storrs) set-up the scoring play with their first career assists as they connected passes from across field to set-up the crucial score for the Warriors, who improved to 24-7-2 in the all-time series. Eastern had lost the previous four games to the Beacons, three of them by shutout.

Eastern starting defenders Carmen Nieves (Sutton, MA), Emily Barata (New Fairfield) and Morgan Kelly (Florida, NY) each played all 90 minutes.
 
Eastern was ranked fifth in the LEC pre-season coaches' poll, UMass Boston second after placing second in last year's LEC regular season and reaching the LEC playoff championship game.
 
The Warriors remain undefeated (2-0-2) on the road this year under first-year head coach Sarah Tompkins.

Eastern visits Westfield State University Wednesday at 7 p.m. in a non-conference match. Last year, Westfield ended a five-games winless streak (0-3-2) against Eastern with a 4-3 win at Rick McCarthy Field.