Box Score
PLYMOUTH, N.H. – What a difference a year -- or two --  makes.
 
Two short seasons ago, the Eastern Connecticut State University field hockey team shared fifth place in the seven-team Little East Conference with one win, and was dispatched from the LEC playoffs with a three-goal first-round road loss.
 
Ranked sixth among seven teams this year in the LEC pre-season coaches poll after winning only two LEC matches in 2024, the Warriors clinched their first LEC regular-season title in 26 years of conference play Saturday and will serve as the No. 1 seed for the first time after building a three-goal lead after 33 minutes and staving off Plymouth State University the rest of the way in a 4-3 victory at Panther Field.
 
In tying the program's record with its sixth regular-season road victory, Eastern (10-7, 5-0 LEC) moves within a victory of its first undefeated LEC regular season when it hosts the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (2-15, 0-5 LEC) Saturday at noon in the final regular-season match of the season.
 
As the No. 1 seed, Eastern draws a first-round LEC playoff bye and will host the winner of a first-round match between the No. 4 and No. 5 seed in the semifinals on Thursday, Nov. 6 at Rick McCarthy Field. The two semifinal winners will play at the site of the highest remaining seed Saturday, Nov. 8 for the championship and automatic berth in the NCAA Division III tournament.
 
Since losing the first 19 matches in the all-time series, Eastern is 7-6 against Plymouth State (5-9, 1-3 LEC), which has lost six of its last seven heading into its final two LEC regular-season matches.
 
Against Plymouth, All-LEC senior Emma Sanson (Thomaston) – the LEC's second-leading goal-scorer behind national leader Grace Bazin of Keene State College --  recorded her fourth multi-goal game of the year and third five-point match by scoring twice and assisting on another, and senior goalkeeper Hannah Jalowiec (Cheshire) made ten saves – one shy of her career-high –in recording her seventh win in her last nine starts. Jalowiec allowed only one goal during the run of play, with both of Sarah Adamske's goals coming on penalty strokes.
 
Sophomore Audrey Molin (Vernon) became the second Eastern player this year – behind Sanson – to reach double-digit goals when her tenth of the season – assisted by Sanson -- just 4:23 into play gave the Warriors a lead they would not relinquish. Another sophomore, Rebecca Minaya (Stafford) made it 2-0 12 minutes later and Sanson's 11^th of the year on junior Grace Barlage's (Guilford) team-leading eighth assist – equaling the fourth-most in a season in program history – made it 3-0 at halftime.
 
Plymouth got one back in the opening minutes of the third quarter, but Sanson promptly answered for the Warriors just 30 seconds later on an assist from junior Betsy Davis (Enfield) that killed the Panthers' momentum and, for all intents and purposes, put the game out of reach at 4-1.
 
Eastern's starting defense of Jalowiec, senior Angelina Falleni (Byram, NJ), junior Katie Harrington (Keene, NH) and sophomore Bree Foucault (Wallingford) – whose play has helped the Warriors to the top-ranking defense in the LEC this year – did the rest. Down by three, Plymouth got two back – one in the late stages of the third quarter on a penalty stroke and another with five minutes left – to make it a final one-goal differential.
 
Sanson's two goals give her 34 in her four-year career – three behind the career record -- with her 79 points moving her into a two-way tie with Alumni Hall of Famer Mo Deegan for second place all-time, 14 behind the leader. Her 12 goals this year equal the third-most in a season in program history and her 27 points are fifth-most.
 
The LEC championship is the second in as many years for first-year sophomore transfer Jenna Boardman (Columbia), who saw regular action on Keene State's LEC playoff title team a year ago.
 
Eastern hosts Clark University Wednesday at 3 p.m. in a non-conference match before hosting UMass Dartmouth with a chance to complete a perfect conference regular season. A season-ending victory would give the LEC three different unbeaten regular-season champions in three years, following the University of Southern Maine in 2023 and VTSU Castleton a year ago.
 
The team's fifth straight victory equals the program record for consecutive regular-season wins – set when the Warriors won their only LEC playoff title in 2021 as the No. 3 seed en route to a program-record 14 wins. The program record of six straight regular-season and post-season wins was set in 2015 during a 13-7 season which produced the team's first appearance in the LEC championship game. Wins in its final two (home) regular-season matches would give the Warriors a record 12 regular-season victories.