Box Score
MANSFIELD, Conn. – Many thought that the Eastern Connecticut State University field hockey team had nothing left to prove after clinching its first Little East Conference regular-season championship and first No. 1 playoff seeding last week despite being tabbed for sixth place in the LEC pre-season coaches' poll.
 
Not so.
 
On Saturday, in the final regular-season match of the year and final tune-up for Thursday's LEC semifinal-opener, the Warriors continued their assault on the record books -- eclipsing a number of team and individual standards -- in a 7-1 rout of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth at Rick McCarthy Field.
 
Having earned a first-round bye, Eastern will host the winner of Tuesday's first-round match between No. 4 VTSU Castleton (7-10, 3-3 LEC) and No. 5 Western Connecticut State University (7-10, 2-4) Thursday at 4 p.m. WestConn gained the No. 5 seed after trimming Plymouth State University, 3-2, Saturday at home that snapped a three-game losing streak. Castleton, the pre-season coaches' favorite to win the LEC regular season, is coming off a 6-0 home loss to Husson University in a non-conference match.
 
In snapping a two-game losing streak (both by 2-1 scores) at the hands of UMass Dartmouth (2-16, 0-6 LEC), Eastern (11-8, 6-0 LEC) started slowly, but broke from a 1-0 halftime lead by scoring three times in the third quarter and adding three more in the fourth to record its highest goal total against the Corsairs in the 28-game history of the rivalry.
 
Saturday's result not only gives Eastern its first perfect LEC regular season, but sets program season records for goals (51), assists (34) and points (136), breaking the marks of 47, 33 and 127 set nine years ago.
 
Six different players contributed to the scoring, with senior Emma Sanson (Thomaston), junior Grace Barlage (Guilford) and sophomore Audrey Molin (Vernon) each scoring twice. Sanson also added an assist – giving her five games this year with two goals and four with five points. By scoring the team's first two goals and assisting on the fifth, Sanson (14-3-32) broke Brianna Nolan's 2021 season record of 31 points and moves to within one of tying Alex Kallgren's career record of 37 goals set between 2014 and 2017.
 
Senior goalie Hannah Jalowiec (Cheshire) won for the sixth time in her last seven starts, needing only one save as the Warriors compiled a 26-2 advantage in shots and 7-2 margin in penalty corners. The win was the eighth this year for Jalowiec, equalling the fourth-most in a season by a goalie in program history.
 
With her tenth and 11^th goals of the season, Barlage joins Sanson (14) and Molin (12) with double-digit goals – marking the first time in program history that as many as three players have scored ten or more. The trio has netted 37 of the team's 51 goals this year.
 
During the regular season, Eastern edged both Castleton (2-1) and WestConn (3-2) by one goal at home.