Box Score
MANSFIELD, Conn. --  Sophomore Alex Ignatowicz (Coventry) made seven saves to extend her scoreless streak to 216 minutes with her third full shutout of the season as the Eastern Connecticut State University women's soccer team took over sole possession of first place in the Little East Conference with a 1-0 win over Western Connecticut State University Wednesday night at Rick McCarthy Field.
 
Still unbeaten (5-0-1) at home, Eastern (10-3-2, 5-0-1 LEC) breaks a two-way tie with Western (10-6-2, 4-2-1 LEC) atop the LEC standings and moves a step closer to its first regular-season title since winning the last of four straight in 2018.
 
The victory ends a ten-match winless (0-8-2) streak against Western and is the Warriors' first home victory against the Wolves since a 1-0 double-overtime victory in 2012. It was the third straight time the Eastern-Western match ended in a 1-0 score.
 
Graduate forward Katelyn Herbert (Bethpage, NY) scored the only goal of the match, knocking in her own rebound from near the right post midway through the second half. The goal was her seventh of the season – equalling her high for a season – and 22^nd (seventh career game-winner) of her 59-game career.

 The play originated with a short corner from the left side taken by sophomore defender Jordan Fabry (Lisbon). WestConn knocked the short corner out of the box toward the Eastern bench on the left side, where Fabry retrieved it, took one touch and sent a long perfectly-placed left-footer into the box. Herbert was off-balance and closely guarded by a WestConn defender, but managed to get a foot on it from close range and send it off the left post. The ball bounced back to Herbert, still closely guarded, and she volleyed it back inside the left post.

With a conference-leading 16 points, Eastern closes out the regular season with LEC matches Saturday at three-time defending LEC playoff champion University of Southern Maine (6-9-2, 2-1-2 LEC) and against visiting Rhode Island College (9-5-0, 4-2-0 LEC). WestConn has 13 points with one LEC match remaining Saturday at Keene State College. RIC has 12 points with two matches remaining, Southern Maine eight with three still to play.
 
Ignatowicz, last year's LEC Goalkeeper-of-the-Year, posted her second straight full shutout and has not allowed a goal since the 55^th minute of a 4-1 LEC win at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth 11 days ago. WestConn was shut out by a New England opponent for the first time in six weeks.
 
WestConn had two opportunities to tie the match in a six-minute span soon after Herbert's goal. The first came on a corner kick by sophomore Shannon Anderson, with Ignatwicz coming off her line to snare and the second off a shot from the middle of the box by team scoring leader Anderson – a low drive that was covered by the goalkeeper.
 
A minute before Herbert's goal, Eastern threatened  when WestConn goalkeeper Gracen Regan slipped while trying to secure the ball, but defender Sophia Onek stepped in to clear the ball away before the Warriors could capitalize.
 
Eastern's starting defense of senior Kylie Gentile (Berlin) and sophomores Brooke Bolles (Preston), Jordan Fabry (Lisbon) and Tori Babineau (Charlestown, RI) kept Ignatowicz well-protected, never allowing the Wolves a 1v1 situation or a point-blank shot on the goalkeeper. It was the seventh shutout (third straight) of the year for the Warriors, who have allowed an average of 0.93 goals per match – tops in the LEC. Ignatowicz' goals-against average of 1.05 and .841 save percentage also lead all conference goalies.
 
Having won or shared four LEC regular-season titles in a six-year span between 2014 and 2019), WestConn was coming off two straight shutout wins and was 9-2-1 in its last 12 matches since a 1-3-1 start.