'MANSFIELD, Conn. --  Senior Sara Joyce (Hampstead, NH) made nine saves to record her Little East Conference-leading fifth shutout in ten starts and carry Keene State College to a 3-0 conference victory over Eastern Connecticut State University Saturday afternoon.

The Keene (7-3, 5-0 little east conference) win, coupled with Worcester State College's 3-1 loss at the University of Southern Maine, leaves the Owls in sole possession of first place in the conference. Eastern (2-7, 2-3 little east conference) was coming off a 2-1 home win over Southern Maine Wednesday.

The shutout is the third straight for Joyce - all in conference play -- as Keene has outscored its opponents 16-0 in that stretch. The Owls were coming off Wednesday's 5-0 win over Plymouth State, which shared last year's conference regular-season crown with Keene. Keene has won or shared the last three regular season titles and has gone on to win the last two post-season conference tournaments.

Against Eastern, Joyce made six first-half saves to preserve a 1-0 lead at halftime The lead remained at one goal before the Owls put the game away by scoring twice in a span of three minutes inside the final ten minutes.  Senior forward Steph Georgevits (Concord, NH) assisted on the first goal and scored the second. Georgevits' goal was a breakaway.

Mindy Maher (Fr./Sherman) made eight saves for Eastern. Midfielder Lindsay Raymond (Jr./Niantic) collected four of Eastern's 12 shots. Eastern scoring leader Stephanie Mongelli (Jr./Pequannock, NJ) had three shots - all on goal - but was kept off the board by Joyce.

Since upending Keene, 4-0, at home in 2001, Esatern has lost five straight by a combined margin of  15-4.

KSC returns home to face UMass-Dartmouth on Tuesday (6 p.m.). Eastern visits Western Connecticut State University Tuesday at 6 p.m.