Eastern Connecticut State University

MANSFIELD, Conn. -- First-year defender Lindsey Rowe scored her first collegiate goal and tacked on her first collegiate assist as a member of the Eastern Connecticut State University Women's Soccer program, helping the Warriors bounce back from their first loss of the season earlier this week on the road, with a dominant 4-0 conference victory over VTSU-Castleton on Saturday at Rick McCarthy Field.

The matchup between the two sides marks the final time, as a member of the Little East Conference, that VTSU-Castleton will take on Eastern, as they depart for the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) following the season. Since the Spartans joined the LEC during the 2018-19 season, the Warriors have gone 5-4-2 against them, including winning four of the last five matches since the 2023 season following today's shutout victory. In fact, all four wins in that stretch, like today, have been by way of a shutout. 

Once again, it was a dominant day for the Eastern defensive front, allowing VTSU-Castleton to generate only two shots on goal against junior goalkeeper Alex Ignatowicz, who was a perfect two-for-two on saves, earning her fourth victory of the year and second shutout. The Warriors held the Spartans to just three shots overall, marking the fifth time in six matches in which they have held an opponent under 10 shots, with the outlier being last Saturday's conference match against Keene State College, in which they allowed 12 shots. 

During the 5-1-0 start to the season, the program's best start since 2004, Eastern has outshot their opponents in every single match both overall and on goal, while holding a 66-5 margin in corner kicks that was upped today after having 13 to VTSU-Castleton's one, and has outscored their opponents 25-4 overall, marking the most goals through six matches in program history. With 181 shots taken now, following another 23 overall today, the Warriors are on pace to break the single-season shots record set during the 2001 season, when they had 372 overall. 

Among those shot takers, team-leading first-year forward Alana Burnell, who now has 31 shots after taking four more today, also added her fourth goal of the season, almost immediately, to start the second half of the 4-0 win. Before that, it was the team's second-highest shot-taker in first-year forward Emily McKelvey netting her seventh of the year in the 20th minute of the first half, to get the Warriors on the board with their first goal of the afternoon.

In all, eight players recorded points in the victory, with four finishing with multi-point matches, and of those four, two recorded three points in Rowe and McKelvey. After McKelvey's early goal, which was assisted by senior midfielder Emily Dunlea, Rowe scored her first collegiate goal in the 35th minute against junior goalkeeper Ella Hall, giving Eastern a 2-0 lead at the break, as they held a 17-1 edge in shots overall, while forcing Hall to make nine saves to Ignatowicz's one, and dealt out nine corner kicks offensively. 

The second half would be more of the same dominance for Eastern as Burnell scored from McKelvey and sophomore forward Michaela Gasparri, while Gasparri picked up her second point after assisting Rowe on her first-half goal along with senior defender Arianna Tomassi. Closing out the scoring for the Warriors in the 81st minute was senior defender Jordan Fabry, rifling a shot from 25-30 yards out, over the crossbar, with the help of Rowe for her second point and first-year defender Juliette Krause to close out the 4-0 shutout. 

Remaining at home to start the week, Eastern will start a stretch of three non-conference matches in a row when they take on Union College on Wednesday at Rick McCarthy Field with a 5:00 PM kickoff. Playing the Garnet Chargers for the third time in program history, a matchup that began two years ago, the Warriors are currently 0-2-0 in the all-time series, having been shut out 1-0 at home back in 2024 before falling on the road last year, 3-0.