DANBURY, Conn. - The Western Connecticut State University Wolves, coached by Joe Mingachos (11th Season), earned the No. 1 seed in the Little East Conference (LEC) Men's Soccer Championship Tournament and received a first round bye for the second season in a row.  WestConn has qualified for the LEC Men's Soccer Championship Tournament for the 15th time and the ninth year in a row and will host the University of Southern Maine Huskies (7-5-7, 3-2-3) in the semifinals on Wednesday, November 4 at 4 p.m.  The Wolves finished the 2026 regular season with a 12-3-5 overall record and were unbeaten in the league with a 7-0-1 mark against conference teams.  The winner of the LEC Championship Tournament will determine the league's automatic qualifier for the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament. No. 2-seeded University of Massachusetts Boston (8-5-1, 5-2-1) also received a first round bye, while No. 4-seeded Southern Maine downed the No. 5-seeded University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth Corsairs, 2-1, in the first round on Saturday.  No. 3 -seeded Rhode Island College (6-5-5, 4-1-3) also reached the semifinals, blanking the No. 6-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University Warriors, 3-0, on Saturday.  The LEC Championship finals will take place on Saturday with the semifinal winners facing off at the highest remaining seed.  The Wolves won the only previous meeting against the Huskies in the LEC Tournament, 2-1, in the 2023 first round.

WestConn enjoyed steady regular season, going 7-3-3 while playing 13 games in the month of September.  Its three losses in the season's first month, all on the road, came against Wheaton (Mass.), currently ranked No. 3 in its region and ranked No. 7 nationally on the day of the game, by a score of 1-0, against Montclair State (3-0), currently ranked No. 9 in the nation, and, 3-1, at Wesleyan which is ranked No. 8 in its region.  The Wolves are undefeated (5-0-2) since a 4-1 victory over UMass Boston on October 3 and are in the midst of a 12-day layoff since closing the regular season with a 2-1 win at Keene State on October 23.  WestConn has won the LEC Championship title seven times, most recently in 2023 and 2024.  In 2023, the Wolves were seeded No. 3 but rattled off three wins to take the crown and they needed PK's to upend Rhode Island College (0-0) after a scoreless draw with the Anchormen in the 2024 league finals.  WestConn also collected back-to-back crowns in 2017 and 2018, and were the tournament finalists in 2022 when the they completed an unbeaten (20-0-2) campaign with a scoreless draw against UMass-Boston in the championship game.  The Wolves were also the conference finalists in 2021 and last autumn.

WestConn tops the LEC in scoring with 2.3 goals per game and goals allowed at 0.95 per game, and are beating their opponents by 1.35 markers per match.  Junior Nickolas Santana (New Haven, Conn.), the 2025 LEC Offensive Player of the Year, tops the conference in scoring with 25 points on 10 goals (2nd in LEC) and five assists (T3rd in LEC).  Wolves freshman forward Bamfa Fofana (New York, N.Y.) is seventh in the league with 12 points on four goals and four assists (8th in LEC) and junior forward Demani Gordon (Bronx, N.Y.) is ninth in the conference with six goals.  Wolves junior midfielder Juan Gomez Herrera (Brentwood, N.Y.) is second the LEC with seven assists, followed by freshman Rodrigo Lancho (Hartford, Conn.) in third with five assists and Santana and senior midfielder Jeffrey Norales (Bronx, N.Y.) in sixth with four.  Santana is tied for the conference lead with four game-winning goals.  Senior backs Enzo LaGrassa-Gillet (Miami Beach, Fla.) anchors the WestConn defense that has allowed less than five shots-on-goal per game in front of freshman goalkeeper Aime Ruggles (Bronx, N.Y.) who has a league-low 0.77 GAA and an .855 save percentage.