Box Score

MANSFIELD, Conn. – What figured to be a hard-fought women's lacrosse battle with Little East Conference home field playoff implications possibly at stake never materialized Wednesday at Rick McCarthy Field as Eastern Connecticut State University dominated every facet of the game in rolling to a 17-2 Senior Night victory over the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

With its tenth straight win over UMass Dartmouth (9-7, 3-4 LEC) and its 31^st in the 35-match series, Eastern (12-4, 4-3 LEC) took over fifth place in the nine-team Little East standings and remains in contention to host a first-round LEC contest Tuesday for the second straight season.

Heading into its Little East regular-season finale Saturday at 1 p.m. at the University of Southern Maine (11-5, 5-2 LEC), the Warriors stand a half-game behind Keene State College (5-3 LEC), which concluded its conference season Wednesday with an 11-8 loss at defending LEC playoff champion Plymouth State University (7-0 LEC) which secured the No. 1 playoff seed with the victory.

An Eastern win against Southern Maine Saturday would likely create a final three-way tie for third place between Eastern, Southern Maine and Keene State, with tie-breakers needed to determine the Nos. 3 and 4 seeds that would host the No. 5 seed and No. 6 seed UMass Dartmouth in the first round. An Eastern loss to Southern Maine would leave Eastern as the No. 5 seed and playing a first-round playoff match at No. 4 Keene. A year ago, No. 3 seed Eastern eliminated No. 6 UMass Dartmouth at home in the first round before being eliminated at No. 2 Keene, 16-8.

Coming off a pair of well-played, close home losses last week against Keene State and Western Connecticut State University (6-1 LEC), UMass sustained it most lopsided loss of the season that guaranteed it a No. 6 playoff seed and first-round road game Tuesday.

A winner of three of its last four LEC contests, Eastern improved to 7-1 at home this year at Rick McCarthy Field after handing the Corsairs only their second loss in six contests on their opponent's field.
In holding its opponent to a season-low goal total, Eastern forced 27 turnovers (equalling its second-most in a match this year) and behind undefeated senior goalie Emma Alford's (West Hartford) fourth win of the year, kept the Corsairs off the board for 36 straight minutes while piling up 11 unanswered goals from the midway point of the first quarter through the final minutes of the third.

UMass Dartmouth's two 60-goal scorers – the only two such scorers in the Little East – were limited to one goal on seven shots by Eastern's defense, which got 'caused turnovers' from nine different players.

For the seventh time this year, Eastern held its opponent to less than 15 shots, allowing the Corsairs only 13 while totalling 28 of its own. The Warriors finished with a +7 advantage in ground balls, led by junior attack Alexa Vizzini (Vernon, NJ) and graduate attack Avonlea LeBeau (North Branford), with four each. LeBeau won nine of the team's 14 draws and became the fourth player in program history to reach 80 in a season, with 81. She ranks third in that department in the LEC.

Ranked fourth in the LEC in goals (56) and third in points (70), Vizzini scored a game-high five goals and added an assist to move to within 11 of becoming the eighth player in program history with 200 career points. Senior midfielder Abby Parisi (Fairfield) added four goals and an assist and LeBeau chipped in three goals to go along with her nine draws. Eight players combined on the team's eight assists.

Alford stopped seven shots for the win in net to even her career record at 12-12. She lowered her season goals-against average to 6.84 and raised her save percentage to .443.

Eastern's 12 wins are the most in eight years and equal the fifth-most in a season in the program's 30-year history.