GORHAM, Maine -- Graduate student Rachel Shanks scored five goals to stake the University of Southern Maine women's lacrosse team to a six-goal halftime lead and the Huskies went on to their fifth consecutive Little East Conference win over Eastern Connecticut State University, 15-11, Saturday afternoon at Hannaford Field.

Shanks, who had scored six goals when Southern Maine (6-6, 2-0 LEC) eliminated Eastern (2-7, 0-2 LEC) from last year's LEC tournament with an 18-3 win, reached the 40-goal mark during the match in helping send the Warriors to their fifth loss in as many road contests this year. The win is Southern Maine's fifth in its last six contests, the loss in that stretch coming, 14-3, at No. 12 nationally-ranked Colby College Wednesday.

Eastern never fully recovered after USM jumped to a 4-1 lead after eight minutes, but managed to slice a six-goal deficit to three in the third quarter on goals by junior Kaylee Drobish (Wallingford) and first-year players Alexa Vizzini (Vernon, NJ) and Sydney Goyette (Westfield, MA). Shanks answered with the 42^nd of the season with four minutes left in the third and freshman Cierra Hill followed with her 16^th of the season inside the final 30 seconds of the quarter to give the hosts a 13-8 lead heading into the final turn.

Active career scoring leader Caroline Stent (Weatogue) scored Eastern's first goal four minutes into action and their last inside the final two minutes of the game, but managed only one in-between. Stent and Vizzini both had three goals for the Warriors. Sophomore Abby Parisi (Fairfield), senior Shay Ventresca (Montville) and Vizzini combined to win 12 of the team's 13 draws. Parisi had five, Ventresca four and Vizzini three.

Sophomore Emma Alford (West Hartford) made ten saves in goal for Eastern while junior Cece Racine stopped nine Eastern shots, with five of her saves coming when Eastern unloaded 12 of its game total of 27 in the first quarter.

Eastern visits Western New England University Tuesday at 4 p.m. in a non-conference match. The Warriors have won six of nine in the all-time series with WNEU (8-4), which trounced Wentworth Institute, 16-2, Saturday, for its fourth straight win. The Golden Bears average nearly 15 goals per match, Eastern just over ten.