Box Score

Senior M Jenna Costa (Attleboro, Mass.) broke a scoreless drought in the 77^th minute as UMass Lowell defeated Southern Connecticut State, 1-0, Saturday afternoon in the Northeast-10 Conference regular season finale at Jess Dow Field.

With the win, UMass Lowell caps the 2012 season with a 6-9-2 overall record and a 5-9-1 clip in the NE-10. Southern Connecticut slips to 9-4-3 overall and 7-4-3 in the Conference and awaits NE-10 Tournament pairings.

UMass Lowell scored the winner when senior F Keanna Santos (Lakeville, Mass.) dropped off to Costa on the left side. After a touch, Costa uncorked a lofting, left-footed shot from 30 yards out which sailed just over the reach of Southern Connecticut GK Elizabeth Nickerson inside the top right corner.

Junior GK Jill Carlson (Lexington, Mass.) stopped a season-high eight shots en route to her third clean sheet of the season, with plenty of help from UMass Lowell's backline of seniors Gia O'Connor (Dracut, Mass.) and Taylor Hartmann (Feeding Hills, Mass.) and freshmen Selja Snorradottir (Reykjavik, Iceland) and Rachel Silk (Lowell, Mass.).

“Jill did an amazing job of being sure-handed on crosses,” said head coach Elie Monteiro. “She played composed and organized her defense really well. She was really a solid presence all game.

“I just can't say enough about our back four,” he added. “Southern Connecticut is dangerous given space, but our back four followed the game plan to a 't'. We didn't allow too many shots from close in. I was really impressed with them.”

Southern Connecticut outshot UMass Lowell 12-4 overall (8-2 on frame). Nickerson had one save for Southern Connecticut.

“Our seniors did a good job being a presence today, of wanting to go out with a win,” Monteiro noted.