WILLIMANTIC, Conn. -- The Eastern Connecticut State University men's lacrosse team opens play in its sixth NCAA Division III tournament Wednesday at 4 p.m. when it visits the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, NY.

Eastern Connecticut (14-3) earned an automatic bid to the tournament Saturday by besting Keene State College, 12-8, in the championship game of the Little East Conference tournament. Merchant Marine (11-5) received an at-large bid to the 22-team field, its second NCAA tournament appearance ever and second in three years. The Mariners wrapped up its regular season by winning its first Landmark Conference championship Saturday with an 8-6 win over visiting University of Scranton. A second-year conference, the Landmark does not receive an automatic bid to the tournament.

The post-season tournament appearance is the ninth 14-year history of the program and the first under second-year head coach Justin Axel. The Warriors last appeared in 2006 when it dropped a 7-4 decision at Stevens Tech.

If it defeats Merchant Marine, Eastern would move on to a second-round match Saturday at Wesleyan University (14-3) at 1 p.m. The Warriors have lost their NCAA opener in each of its five previous appearances.

It will be the first meeting ever between Eastern and Merchant Marine.

A winner of eight straight, Eastern is led by senior twins Matthew Savage (Southington) and Kyle Savage (Southington), sophomore faceoff specialist Eric Vasil (Southington) and senior defenseman Steve Lane (Groton). Matthew Savage was named Most Outstanding Player of the conference playoffs by scoring nine goals in two matches. Kyle Savage holds most all career program records for goalies, including wins (44). He needs saves for 800 in his career. Vasil leads Division III in ground balls (11.4) and is sixth in faceoff percentage (.707). Lane leads all non-faceoff players with 69 ground balls.

Merchant Marine has won six straight and eight of nine since losing four straight, with two of those losses coming to No. 10 nationally-ranked Washington & Lee University and #17 Wesleyan. In its only other previous NCAA appearance in 2007, MMA dropped a 14-11 first-round decision at Keene State. It is the only NCAA tournament victory for a Little East Conference team. The Mariners qualified that year by topping Stevens Tech, 12-11, in the finals of the Skyline Conference. Merchant Marine finished 9-7 last year in its first season in the Landmark Conference.

Merchant Marine’s top two offensive threats are senior Brennan Dougherty (38-23-61) – the program’s all-time assist leader -- and junior Brian Flannery (37-10-47). Senior Michael Condron tops the club with 62 ground balls. Nine different players have combined to win 32.9 percent of the team’s faceoffs.

Eastern played and lost two matches against teams appearing in this week’s natonal poll. The Warriors lost at No. 5 Salisbury University, 15-7, March 21 and lost to visting Trinity College, 12-9, April 7. Salisbury was rated No. 1 nationally at the time and Trinity received votes in this week’s national Top 20. The games against Washington & Lee and Wesleyan represented MMA’s only ones against teams currently ranked nationally.

Eastern averages 13.6 goal per match and has a +5.1 scoring margin. Merchant Marine averages 8.9 goals per game with a 0.3 scoring margin.

Eastern and Wesleyan are among seven institutions chosen from New England. In addition to Eastern, Wesleyan, Mount Ida College, Springfield College and Western New England College qualified automatically by winning conference championships. Middlebury College and Tufts University received at-large bids

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