Courtesy Worcester State Sports Information

Cape Cod, MA --- The Worcester State women’s soccer team has been selected as the top-seed in this week’s upcoming ECAC Division III New England Tournament. The Lancers, who are making their second-ever ECAC appearance, will entertain #8 University of New England at 6 PM in the opening round on Wednesday.

The other mid-week matchups include #2 Keene State taking on seventh-seeded Norwich, third-seeded Salve Regina entertaining #6 St. Joseph’s (Connecticut) and fourth-seeded UMass Boston hosting #5 Endicott.

The semifinals and finals will be hosted at the highest remaining seed on Saturday and Sunday at times to be announced after the quarterfinal round.

Worcester State’s only other appearance in the ECAC New England Tournament came in 1998 after the squad finished the year 12-4-2 and third-place in the MASCAC. The eighth seeded Lancers nearly defeated #1 Babson with the score 3-3 after two overtimes, but the Beavers prevailed advancing on penalty kicks, 6-3.

WSU comes into the tournament off of a hard 1-0 shutout by Westfield State this past Saturday in the MASCAC Tournament. The Lancers are 13-5-1 overall and tied for the regular league season crown with the Owls and Bridgewater State.

Senior Danielle Clifford (Attleboro, MA) leads the Blue and Gold with seven goals and three assists for 17 points while junior Brianne Beckman (Lakeville, MA) has netted five goals and added a squad-best six helpers. Freshman Therese Morss (Marion, MA) has also pitched in with five markers and one assist for WSU.

Fourth-year keeper Angiezaka Sychtysz (Warren, MA) has helped the Lancers lead the MASCAC in goals allowed (15) and goals against average (0.78).

The University of New England (12-2-3), regular season champions of the Commonwealth Coast Conference (8-0-1), come into Coughlin Field motivated after they were upset in the first round of their conference tournament by Western New England in penalty kicks, 4-2, after they drew in double overtime, 1-1.

Senior Katie Caron (Winslow, ME) paces the Nor’easters with squad highs of eight goals and eight assists as classmate Alice Read (Auburn, ME) has registered six goals and four dishes for 16 points. Four of junior Lauren Blaisdell’s (Scarborough, ME) five tallies this season have been for game-winners.

Fourth-year Jessica Woodworth (Concord, NH) has yielded just 10 goals all season for a 0.60 goals against average to go along with a .868 save percentage. Woodworth also has seven shutouts to her credit as her GAA was the eighth-best average in New England and the 40th best in Division III last week.

The Nor’easters and the Lancers have never played each other.