WILLIMANTIC, Conn. -- Eastern Connecticut is competing in postseason tournament play for the third time in as many years under third-year head coach Greg DeVito. It is the Warriors' second NCAA showing in the last three years, and 15th tournament appearance in program history. In DeVito's first year in 2007, Eastern won its first conference playoff title and was eliminated in its first-ever NCAA tournament game, 2-0, by Williams. Last year, the Warriors were seeded first in the ECAC New England Division III tournament and won two games before dropping a 1-0 decision to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

Eastern (16-4-1) is ranked ninth among 11 teams in the NCAA New England Region poll through games of Sunday. RPI is third in the East, Williams first in New England and Husson is unranked. Eastern and RPI have never met in men's soccer.

The 1-0 win over Massachusetts Dartmouth Saturday in the conference championship game allowed the Warriors to tie the program record for victories in a season, set by the 1969 NAIA New England champions. Eastern has won eight straight overall and 11 in a row against New England opponents. In 15 of 21 matches, Eastern's opponent has scored less than two goals, with four Eastern keepers combining on a total of nine shutouts.

Seven freshmen and sophomores have comprised the bulk of the team's starting lineup, which has been anchored by seniors Chris Bourdeau (Thompson, Conn.), Nicholas Boretti (Marshfield, Mass.) and Maxim Fantl (West Hartford, Conn.). The team's starting forwards, Fantl and Boretti have combined for more than half (25) of the team's 49 goals and have also combined for ten assists. Fantl has accumulated a conference-leading 17 goals (four game-winners) and 40 points, with Boretti adding eight goals (three game-winners) and 20 points. First-year sophomore Matt Furman (Montville, Conn.) has chipped in seven goals (four game-winners) and five assists and sophomore defender Aaron Smiles (Bedford, Mass.) a conference-leading ten assists. For Boretti, the MVP of the conference playoffs, two of his game-winning goals came in the conference tournament.

A returning first-team All-New England Region pick, Fantl ranks third all-time at Eastern in points (49-20-118), with this year's goal total the most in a season since Jason Brasher in 1991 (no player has score more than 17 since All-America Glenn Judge had 22 in 1987). In 19 starts this year, sophomore keeper Carl Appel (West Windsor, N.J.) has posted five full shutouts with a 0.94 goals-against average and .814 save percentage.

As a team, the Warriors have collected better than 100 more shots than their opponents, nearly twice as many corner kicks, and have commited half as many fouls.

Last Wednesday, Liberty League regular-season champion RPI had six-game unbeaten streak halted with a 3-2 overtime loss to Union College in the semifinal round of the league tournament. Union is the only team to have beaten RPI this year, as it also claimed a 1-0 win a month ago at Troy, N.Y. For the Engineers in net, first-team all-league junior keeper Alex Penny has started 16 of 17 matches with a 0.54 goals-against average and .871 save percentage - marks which rank him among the national Top Ten. He also has nine full shutouts. Behind Penny, RPI opened its season with seven straight shutouts (6-0-1 record) and until the tournament loss to Union, had never surrendered more than one goal in a match.

The NCAA appearance is the second straight and sixth overall for RPI, which is under the direction of eighth-year head coach Adam Clinton.

While Eastern has featured an extremely young team this year, RPI has succeeded with a veteran unit as all but two of its starters are either seniors or juniors. Eight of the team's players were named to the all-league team last week.

The Warriors won two and lost one against teams which were named to the tournament. They shut out Salem State College, 3-0, at home Sept. 29 and blanked Babson College, 1-0, at Wellesley, Mass. Sept. 6 and lost at Montclair State University, 2-1 in double overtime, Oct. 4. All three of those teams were automatic qualifiers to the NCAA tournament.

Keene State College is the only common opponent this year between Eastern and RPI Eastern lost at home to Keene, 4-1, Sept. 16, while RPI downed the Owls, 1-0, Oct. 14. at home.

A total of ten teams from New England will participate in the tournament. Seven were automatic qualifiers and three received at-large bids.