The No. 6 seed St. Thomas Aquinas fell to the third-seeded Bears, 19-9, on Tuesday at President's Stadium in an opening-round matchup of the East Coast Conference Tournament.  Danielle Cajou scored four goals for the Spartans while Caroline Finnen added two goals.

The Bear's Karie Znaniecki scored just a little over a minute into the game to set the tone for the home team.  Znaniecki finished with five goals for NYIT.

Caitlin Verber scored the first goal for the Spartans at the 26:38 mark to bring them within one, 2-1.  NYIT recorded five more goals before Cajou scored her first goal making the score 7-2 at the 21:58 mark.  The Spartans put up a good fight over the next ten minutes outscoring NYIT, 3-1 to come within three, 8-5 with 10:24 remaining in the half.  

Cajou scored her thrid goal of the half and the Spartans trailed 13-6 at the break.  Kaitlyn Gutenberger and Finnen each added first half goals.  STAC went on to score three of the first four goals of the second half but Arielle Rodriguez's goal at 12:07 making the score, 14-9 was as close as the Spartans would get.  The Bears recroded the final five goals of the game to secure a 19-9 win and advance to the semi finals.  

NYIT will face second-seeded Mercy on Thursday at noon in Dobbs Ferry, NY.

The Spartans finish up their season 6-10.  Katherine Feigenbaum recorded 14 saves for the game.  The Bears held a slight 38-31 shots advantage over the Spartans.  Ashley Miller earned the win in goal for NYIT with eleven saves.