DANBURY, Conn. - Sophomore forward Myah Croze (Bristol, Conn.) scored a pair of goals to lead the Western Connecticut State University women's soccer team to a 3-0 victory over visiting University of Southern Maine in the Little East Conference Championships semifinal at the Westside Athletic Complex on a chilly Thursday night.

WestConn, now 17-1, will be chasing its 12th LEC title since 1999 and fifth championship since 2015.  Due to the pandemic, no conference tournament was played.  It will be hosting the University of Massachusetts Boston at noon on Saturday.  The Beacons defeated Castleton, 4-1 in the other semifinal on Thursday night.  WestConn and UMB have met in the last two LEC title games.  The Beacons were the last league opponent to score on the pesky WestConn defense when they won the 2019 crown with a 4-0 victory in Beantown.

After a scoreless first half, WestConn came out of the break on a mission.  Junior back Julia DePalma (Kings Park, N.Y.) put the hosts up 1-0 when she headed home a corner kick from Hannah Daly (Newtown, Conn.) just 58 seconds into the new stanza.  It was DePalma's second goal of the year.

Croze, who came into the contest second in the nation among Division III players, tallied a pair of insurance goals in the second half. 

In the 59th minute, she was set up by a combination of passes from Lillian Daniels (Bethel, Conn.) and Kyla Norton (East Hampton, Conn.) into the middle of the box.  Following a crafty spin dribble, she put away the one-goal cushion.

The final dagger came six minutes later when she receive a pass from freshman standout Suzana Imetovski (Seymour, Conn.).  The short pass in the box set up Croze's 26th marker of the season.

Senior goalie Karly Martin (Bristol, Conn.) recorded her sixth shut out of the season after making six saves against the Huskies.

Bre Atwood (Franklin, Mass.) withstood a barrage of shots from WestConn and finished with 11 saves for Southern Maine, which ends its season at 12-4-3.

WestConn rattled off 34 shots in the cold New England air while surrendering just 13 attempts from the visitors.

Since 1999, WestConn is 11-3 in LEC title games while UMass Boston is 2-3.  WestConn took home the trophy in 1999-2001, 2006-2011, 2015-2018) while the Beacons lifted the hardware in 2012 and 2019.