Box Score MANSFIELD, Conn. – In a Little East Conference women's soccer season where neither team came away with a win (or loss) over 35 percent of the time, it was only fitting that Eastern Connecticut State University and the University of Massachusetts Boston ended their regular seasons in a scoreless tie.
 
After the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and Plymouth State University played to (you guessed it) a tie Friday and earned only one point apiece, Eastern (4-6-4, 1-3-4 LEC) entered play Saturday guaranteed of the sixth and final seed in the playoffs  and will visit Keene State College in a first-round match Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Dr. Ron Butcher Field. The Owls (9-3-7, 3-0-5 (LEC), idle Saturday, dropped to the No. 3 seed after Western Connecticut State University blanked Rhode Island College Saturday to finish as the No. 2 seed and gain the second first-round bye.
 
The University of Southern Maine (6-0-2) concluded an unbeaten LEC regular season by winning its second straight regular-season title, downing VTSU Castleton, 5-2, Saturday. Last year, the Huskies defeated WestConn to capture last year's LEC playoff title.
 
UMass Boston (6-4-9, 3-1-4 LEC), which had also opened it season with a draw,  finished as the No. 4 seed and will host fifth-seeded Rhode Island College in the opening round Tuesday.
 
The tie between Eastern and UMass Boston was the first in 13 years in the series and only the third one in the 34-game history of the series, but marked the 24^th shutout.
 
While the teams combined for only nine shots and three goalies combined for only three saves Saturday, it was the aggressive play coming off their lines of junior Isabella O'Connell of UMass Boston and senior Emily Wallace (Smithtown, NY) and first-year player Kaeden Dublin (Maple Grove, MN) which prevented either team from taking a shot that could truly be classified as 'dangerous'.
 
The Beacons' best chance came midway through the second half on a corner kick by senior defender Caileigh Sullivan that Wallace leaped to punch over the crossbar. Minutes earlier, Wallace came off her line to snare a looping ball in the box, then, soon after, hustled out to cover a loose ball at the right post that was chased by UMB scoring leader Kaylee Haynes.
 
Eastern was out-cornered, 7-2, and was not awarded one through the first 55 minutes.
 
O'Connell of UMB was credited with only two saves but foiled what may have been Eastern's best chance when she outraced Eastern junior forward Olivia Mullings (Newington) to the ball on what looked to be a possible 1v1 opportunity following graduate student Grace Muller's (Johnston, RI) perfectly-placed thru-ball.
 
Another UMB corner kick – again off the foot of Sullivan -- could have resulted in the first (and only?) goal of the match with ten minutes left but the line drive sailed untouched through and out of the box.
 
In the final home match of her career, Wallace did not make before giving way to Dublin over the final 25-plus minutes. Dublin made one save.
 
On Senior Day, the seven outgoing members of the program were honored afterward: Wallace, Muller, Jillian Parenteau (West Greenwich, RI), Carly Alston (Franklin, MA), Lindsay Fishman (South Windsor), Ashlyn Rogers (Portsmouth, RI) and student-assistant coach Lexi Almeida (Southington).

All six of the players were in the starting lineup and played at least 40 minutes.

Eastern brings a four-match unbeaten streak (3-0-1) against Keene into Tuesday's first-round game. The teams played to a 1-1 tie at Keene on Sept. 23, with Katelyn Herbert (Bethpage, NY) scoring in the tenth minute for Eastern on a pass from Mullings, and Alexa Skinner answering for the Owls midway though the first half. Keene outshot Eastern, 12-6, in that contest but managed to put only six shots on net against Wallace, who stopped five of them.

Eastern has a long and mostly successful LEC playoff history with Keene. The teams have met 11 times, with Eastern winning four times and also winning titles in 2003 and 2011 on penalty kicks on the home field of No. 1 seed Keene after the teams played to scoreless draws through overtime. Since winning the 2011 championship at Keene, Eastern has lost twice in the LEC playoffs to Keene: 1-0 at Keene in the 2013 final and 2-1 at home as the No. 1 seed against fifth-seeded Keene in the 2015 semifinals.

The Warriors have gone out in the first round each of the last two seasons. As last year's No. 6 seed, Keene was eliminated by No. 3 seed UMass Boston, 4-0, in the first round.