Hey everyone!

As many of you all know we recently won the Little East Conference post-season tournament last weekend! We played Keene State at home for the final game.  We were very confident in ourselves because we had everyone back for the game, even Mike Radlbeck who was injured for five weeks straight.  We played a hard-fought game and in the end won on a penalty kick by Matt Esposito in the first few minutes.  For myself and the other seniors, it is our second LEC tournament title in the four years that we have been here.

For the third consecutive year, we have made it to the NCAA Division II Tournament.  Everyone on the team is extremely excited for the opportunity that is in front of us.  We will be playing Springfield College on Saturday at 11 a.m, in the first round.  If we win, we will play the winner of Amherst-Husson on Sunday at 1 p.m..  The games are being held at Amherst College in Massachusetts 

Please come up and support us as we attempt for a berth in the NCAA Sweet 16  for the first time in school history!

Hey everyone!

Hello Everyone!

Eastern ended up finishing 14th out of 26, placing better as a team than at UMass Dartmouth, with some impressive individual improvements from the same course last year.

The end of the season is fast approaching!

We were extremely successful in our Run-a-Thon fundraiser, raising about $2300. Thank you to all who donated money. After battling illness that struck many members of the team, we are back and looking strong for our home meet Saturday against Rhode Island College.

Come out at 10:30 a.m. to support men's and women's cross country at Mansfield Hollow State Park!!

Hey everyone!

Happy fall everyone,

With autumn here, comes the crisp 60 degree air. Theres no better weather than this to play some field hockey!

This past week our field hockey team gave it our all at our two games against Plymouth State University and UMass Dartmouth. Each and every person who stepped on the field went into the game saying,  "I will not let my teammates down, and I will not let myself down.":  And at the end of the game we didn't win, but at least we could tell each other that we left everything we had in ourselves out on the field.

Join us on the turf this Saturday  at 4 p.m. for our senior game against Salem State University. Were going to fight for our first conference win! 

See you guys there!

Jen

Hey everyone! It's Matt again, here to update everyone on our last week. 

We are back on track to start of the week!  Last Wednesday we suffered a tough loss to Trinity College at their home field.  It was one of those games where everything seemed to go wrong at the worst times.  But, this weekend we went up to Plymouth State University to play our second conference match of the season.  Chris Giustina started off the scoring for us by smashing in a header off of a corner kick.  It was his first goal of his career here at Eastern..  Later in the game Matt Furman crossed the ball into the box and the ball ricocheted off a Plymouth State defender and ended up in their goal.  To finish off the day Nick Demo put home a header off of another corner kick in the second half.  It was also his first goal of his career here at Eastern.  Those two games put a dent in our starting back four by knocking Mike Radlebeck and Aaron Smiles out of our match this Tuesday.  But, because of our deep bench and team work we managed to rout Salem State University at Thomas Nevers field Tuesday.  Mitch Power scored his first goal this past Tuesday against Salem State.  He didn't stop there and decided to put home two more.  Matt Furman and Luke Capezzone also scored for us. 

Looking to the future, we aim to continue our run in the Little East conference with a home game this Saturday against Western Connecticut State University.  We should have everyone back healthy and ready to play by this weekend. 

 Talk to you all soon and hopefully see you at the game this weekend!

Hey everyone,

In the two weeks, we have come together as a team and worked hard at each and every practice and game. We had our first non conference victory against Wheelock College (3-1). Since then, we had three close games against Westfield State University, Manhattanville College, and Framingham State University. Although we didn't win, we fought our hardest until the last second on the clock.

Lately, we've been working hard on team encouragement. The team chemistry has been developing better than ever. Our next game is home against Fitchburg State University this Wednesday at 4 pm. Come support field hockey on our home field as we take on Fitchburg State!.

Talk to you soon!

Jen

 In its second meet of the year, Eastern entered UMass Dartmouth, the site of the Little East Conference championships, with high hopes, knowing its reputation as a flat course and fast times.

Three Eastern runners finished the 8 kilometer course in under 28 minutes, with Eastern's most versatile runner, junior Tim Callahan of Portland, leading the way in 27:33, finishing 107^th out of 255 total runners in the varsity race. Shortly after Callahan came standout freshmen Dave Klein (New Milford) in 27:53, good for 129^th place, and Kyle Shaw (Lebanon) in 27:56 for 133^rd place. Less than a minute later, junior Ryan Franklin (Glastonbury) avenged a poor first race at Fitchburg and ran his first 8k under 29 minutes, finishing in 28:53 for 166^th place. Rounding out Eastern's top seven  were senior Bryan Jorge (Bristol) in 29:22 for 177^th place, senior Ryan Hughes (Cheshire) in 30:11 for 205^th place, and talented senior mid-distance specialist Casey McGarvey (Bozrah) in 33:08 for 235^th place.

We will be competing at the Codfish Bowl in Boston this Saturday, where we finished 16th last year in a field of 25 team. 

In the first meet of the year at the Jim Sheehan Memorial hosted by Fitchburg State, Eastern's top finishers featured a slew of talented freshmen to help lead them to a second place finish out of four, scoring 59 points as a team.

David Klein of New Milford led the way in 27:37 to place eighth overall. Klein moved his senior year to Newtown after spending his first three years at New Milford High. After Eastern's top finisher came freshman Lee Cattanach (New London) in 28:04, senior Bryan Jorge (Bristol) in 28:21, and freshmen Kyle Shaw (Lebanon) and Austin Baldour (Newtown) in 28:23 and 28:26, respectively. Eastern's 2^nd through 5^th place finishers placed 11^th, 12^th, 13^th, and 15^th on the hilly course which measured out to slightly under five miles. Rounding out the top 7 for the Warriors were senior leader Ryan Hughes (Cheshire) at 29:05 in 19^th place and junior Ryan Franklin (Glastonbury) at 31:02 in 23^rd place.

Hey everyone,

Matt again getting back to you after an exciting weekend up at Nevers Field.  

This past Wednesday we played a hard fought game away at Wheaton which resulted in a 1-1 tie.  Matt Furman scored in regular time with 22 seconds left on the clock.  We picked up a few bumps and bruises and recovered our injured players the next couple of days.  

In our conference home opener against Rhode Island College we pulled off an exciting win.The game remained tied throughout regulation with things getting heated between us and RIC.  As soon as the overtime started Sean Collins decided enough was enough. Aaron Smiles played a ball over the top of the defense to Sean.  Sean blazed by the RIC defenders leaving them in his dust and chipped a ball over the goalie to the far post.  Matt Furman soared above his defender and smashed in a header to win the game 37 seconds into over time.  This week we have everyone back and healthy and ready to take on Trinity and Plymouth State

#weinthis

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The Eastern women's cross country team is going to be a force to be reckoned with this season. In addition to strong top returning runners, we also have promising upcoming freshman including Melissa Zablonski, Emily Sniffin, Kelly Labanara and Ashley Westman.

As a team, we are very excited for the prospects of this year. The dedication and camaraderie among the team showed tremendously through our difficult first two weeks of practice, as well as during daily team dinners.

Everyone survived last Friday's difficult course hosted by Fitchburg State University at Coggshall Park. Between a detour that added time to the course and the infamous hill, it was a struggle for everyone. But we as a team are determined to succeed.

We run Saturday at the Massachusetts Dartmouth Invitational at North Dartmoouth, MA.

GO WARRIORS!

Hey guys!

It's that time of year again: field hockey season!

This year started off great with pre-season week. We worked hard and survived three-a-days all week in 80 degree weather. Our season looked promising with seven returning seniors, on a nineteen person roster. 

After the long week the team was looking forward to our first scrimmage versus Elms College, although that was only until hurricane Irene was announced and we were forced to evacuate campus for the weekend! It was safe for players to return to Eastern on Monday, despite the fact that many upperclassman living off campus were without power due to the hurricane. 

Practices began once again, and we had our first home game versus Ramapo College of NJ on September 1. Without a scrimmage under our belts, we finished with a 4-1 loss. However, senior goalie Danielle Reichardt saved 32 shots, setting a Eastern field hockey program record. Additionally, senior forward Chelsie Rizzo scored her second career goal. Eastern field hockey walked off the field with our heads up, ready to push it even further next game.

Since then, we've played three additional games versus Salve Regina, Connecticut College, and the University of Southern Maine. At each game we worked very hard on positive aggressive attitudes, and team movement down the field. Unfortunately, we weren't able to win yet, but plan on coming out even stronger our next game to begin a winning season.

The next game is tomorrow September 13 against  Wheelock College on the turf field. Come support the Warriors at our home field as we fight for our first win.

Throughout the season I will keep you updated on results and give you a behind the scene look on the team this year. Make sure to check back soon to hear more about Eastern Field Hockey.

Thanks for the support!

-Jen

Hey everyone, Matt here to give you all some info on the team for the past two weeks.  

We started off the season with a strong showing up at St. Lawrence University, defeating Clarkson and coming up just short against nationally-ranked St. Lawrence (1-0 loss).  This past week we played home against Fitchburg State and had a good home opener with a solid 4-0 win down at the turf field. This weekend we played our first game back on Thomas Nevers Field and it could not have gone any smoother.  We celebrated Thomas Nevers Day with a 5-0 victory over Ramapo College, which is usually one of our toughest games on the schedule, but this year we proved that we are here to win it all.  

With almost everyone back from injury we are looking stronger than ever and ready to take on Wheaton this upcoming Wednesday evening on its home field.  Make sure everyone stays around campus so you can all make it out this Saturday when we host Rhode Island College in our conference opener home at Nevers Field!  

I'll be back next Sunday to let you all know how this week goes.