Box Score  

MANSFIELD, Conn. – Junior midfielder Abby Parisi (Fairfield) won five draws and four ground balls and caused four turnovers to go along with three goals as the Eastern Connecticut State University women's lacrosse team survived a 24-minute scoreless streak by holding the University of Southern Maine from scoring over the final 26 minutes and remained undefeated in the Little East Conference with a 12-10 victory Friday evening at Rick McCarthy Field.

By ending a five-game losing streak in the series against Southern Maine (5-7, 1-4 LEC) and winning for the fourth time in five home matches this year, Eastern (8-6, 5-0 LEC) -- ranked fifth in the LEC pre-season coaches' poll -- remains as one of two unbeatens in the conference.

With two LEC regular-season contests remaining, Eastern moves atop the conference standings, a half-game ahead of idle Western Connecticut State University (9-5, 4-0 LEC). Western, last year's regular-season champion with a 7-0 record, hosts VTSU Castleton (2-11, 1-3 LEC) before hosting Eastern Wednesday at 6 p.m.

After being shut out in the third quarter Friday, Eastern erased a three-goal deficit in the fourth quarter, with first-year midfielder Jenna Mahoney (North Reading, MA) coming off the bench to score four of Eastern's five goals in the quarter and first-year defender Neely Hart (Colchester) scoring the other goal and assisting on both Mahoney's tying man-up goal with seven minutes left and her tie-breaking goal that gave Eastern its first lead of the match, 11-10, with 4:38 left.

After Mahoney tied the match at 10-all, Julia McKenna won the ensuing draw for USM, but Parisi caused a turnover and picked up the ground ball, with Hart eventually getting the ball into Mahoney's stick for what proved to be the winning goal. Hart then won the draw and Mahoney connected on her fourth goal in 11 minutes that made it 12-10 with just over three minutes left.

Southern Maine remained within striking distance in the final minutes, but Eastern senior goalie Mackenzie Brown (Southington) made saves on both of the Huskies' fourth-quarter shots that came in the final three minutes. With her team down by two goals, USM senior goalie Cece Racine had given her team life by making a stop on Eastern sophomore Sydney Goyette's (Westfield, MA) bid from the right of the cage with two minutes left , but Brown, in turn, stoned Anna Byers with 71 seconds left for her ninth and final save that all but sealed Eastern's win.

Southern Maine took a 4-1 lead midway thrugh the first quarter before the Warriors remained close on goals by Hart and Goyette (man-up) 64 seconds apart in the first quarter,  and Parisi's man-up goal that opened the second quarter and cut USM's lead to one, 5-4.

Junior defender Addison Twohill (Hamden) had four ground balls and caused two turnovers, while senior midfielder Kaylee Drobish (Wallingford) matched Parisi by winning five draws. Hart finished with two goals, three assists, three draws and three caused turnovers. Brown backstopped her team's fifth win in seven outings, third straight.
McKenna led USM with four goals and two assists and also won six draws and four ground balls and caused three turnovers.  Racine made 13 saves.

While ultimately winning out on the scoreboard, Eastern also held a +13 advantage in shots and +11 in ground balls and committed four less turnovers. Both teams won 13 draws and cleared 23 of 26 attempts.

A shootout by a pair of 40-goal scorers in USM senior Rachel Shanks and Eastern sophomore Alexa Vizzini (Vernon, NJ) never materialized, as both were met with double and triple teams. Shanks was limited to two goals on four shots while Vizzini was bottled up by the Husky defense as she was able to convert only one of eight shots into goals.