Box Score
WESTFIELD, Mass. – First-year goalie Alex Ignatowicz (Coventry) made five saves in the second half and junior Keira Rogers (Portsmouth, RI) and first-year player Sarah Orzolek (Bolton) each recorded their first collegiate points but the Eastern Connecticut State University women's soccer team could not dig out of an early three-goal hole in a 3-2 non-conference loss against Westfield State University Wednesday night at Alumni Field.
 
Leading 2-0 at halftime, Westfield (2-3-2) added a third goal 15 minutes into the second half before Eastern (2-4-0) bounced back on senior Olivia Mullings' (Newington) first goal of the season with 30 minutes left and Rogers' first career one with eight minutes remaining.
 
Eastern had won five and tied two in the last eight matches against Westfield and was coming off successive shutout victories over the Owls, including a 3-0 verdict in 2022 at Alumni Field. The road match was only the second in six matches for Eastern, which had shut out Fitchburg State, like Westfield a member of the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference (MASCAC), in its first road game two weeks ago.
 
In the fourth appearance of her career, Ignatowicz shut out Westfield over the final 30 minutes after allowing the Owls' third goal. Sophomore Kaeden Dublin (Maple Grover, MN) sustained the loss in net, giving up goals nine minutes apart that pushed the hosts into a 2-0 lead 36 minutes into play. Dublin made three saves before departing at halftime.
 
Orzolek assisted on Rogers' goal while junior Katelyn Herbert (Bethpage, NY) had her first assist of the season on Mullings' goal.
 
Eastern opens its Little East Conference season Saturday against two-time defending LEC champion University of Southern Maine at 1 p.m. at Rick McCarthy Field. The Huskies (4-1-1, 0-0-0 LEC) are 13-1-2 in their last 16 LEC regular-season matches and have won four matches en route to two LEC playoff titles and NCAA tournament berths the past two years. USM, ranked sixth in NCAA Region I, has shut out Eastern each of the past three years after the Warriors had shut out the Huskies seven straight times earlier in the series.