Little East Field Hockey Tournament Bracket

Mansfield, CT --- Eastern Connecticut sophomore Gabriela Meza (Norwalk, MA) scored twice as she helped pace the Warriors to a 3-2 victory over Worcester State in Little East Conference field hockey action.

With the win the Warriors improve their record to 8-9 while the Lancers fall to 10-8. Both squads sport identical 5-6 records in the LEC as they both earned berths in next week's conference tournament.

The Blue and Gold, the sixth seed, will play again on Tuesday versus #3 seed UMass Dartmouth.

Meza broke a scoreless game with her first marker of the season at the 23:50 mark off a blast from the right side of the net to put the Warriors up 1-0. 

The hosts increased their margin by two at the half with 4:54 left in the opening frame on the third goal of the campaign by juinor Laura Chicorka (Enfield, CT).

Eastern Connecticut made the score 3-0 less than two minutes into the second period when junior Mackenzie Brower (Granby, CT) stick handled and found an open Meza, who fired home what proved to be a key marker for the Warriors.

Worcester State broke up the shutout bid with 7:45 left in regulation as junior Julie O'Rourke (Worcester, MA/St. Peter-Marian) recieved a little bit of help from classmate Megan Ripke (Feeding Hills, MA) to pot her squad-best 12th goal of the season. 

The Lancers made things interesting in the waning minutes of the contest as junior Taylor Ledwith (Springfield, MA/Cathedral) netted another tally as 1:42 read on the scoreboard with O'Rourke adding an assist on the play.

WSU though never got another shot off as Ripke preserved the final score with a defensive save with seconds left in the game for her second of the contest.

Freshman Kathryn Salemme (Boxboro, MA) stopped one shot in the setback. Sophomore Samantha Scavo (Redding, CT) turned aside seven of the nine attempts on net she saw in the contest.

The Lancers actually held a 10-8 margin in shots as the Warriors held a 10-9 margin in penalty corners (8-3 in 1st half).

Ripke increased her LEC lead in defensive saves to ten as she is one away from equaling the single-season record in the category.