Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 | Box Score 3 | Box Score 4 WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – A disappointing season for three Eastern Connecticut State University fall teams came to a merciful close in the opening round of the Little East Conference playoffs Tuesday night, while a fourth program continued its limp toward the finish line with its sixth loss in the last seven matches.
 
With each Eastern fall team sport featuring young squads beset by heavy graduation losses from a year ago and by key injuries both prior to and during the season, the Warriors struggled all fall, with Tuesday night's three conference playoff teams all finishing below .500 both overall and in the conference.
 
Tuesday, fifth-seeded men's soccer lost by a goal at No. 4 Rhode Island College for the second time this year, 2-1, and concluded with uncharacteristic losing overall (6-7-4) and conference (3-4-1) records.
 
While it was one of the LEC's top defensive squads, sixth-seeded women's soccer (4-7-4, 1-3-4 LEC) ended the season with its fifth shutout in its final six matches, 1-0, at third-seeded Keene State College. The Warriors had tied the Owls, 1-1, at Dr. Ron Butcher Field five weeks ago.
 
After an encouraging 2-0 home win over Western Connecticut State University in the final week of the regular season all but assured field hockey of qualifying for the LEC playoffs for the seventh time in nine years, the fifth-seeded Warriors (3-14-1, 1-6 LEC) were eliminated by fourth-seeded Castleton University, 5-2, with LEC scoring leader Emily Harris scoring three more goals against Eastern to give her eight in two victories over the Warriors this year and leave Eastern with 11 losses in its final 12 matches.
 
Also Tuesday night in its penultimate match of the regular season, women's volleyball (11-13) fell to 1-6 in its last seven matches – losing in straight sets for the fifth time in that stretch – with a non-conference loss at Westfield State University (9-17). Volleyball (3-4 LEC) remains the only fall team sport with a chance at a winning season, but that possibility appears remote as the Warriors must defeat the University of Massachusetts Boston (14-9, 4-3 LEC) in their LEC regular-season finale at home Saturday or risk needing to sweep the conference playoffs, then win an NCAA match to finish at .500.