Senior forward Melissa Belmonte (South Boston, MA) netted a pair of goals for her seventh multi-goal effort of the season to lead the fourth-seeded University of Massachusetts Boston women’s ice hockey team over number five seed University of Southern Maine, 5-2, in the quarterfinals of the ECAC East Tournament today at the Clark Athletic Center on the campus of UMass Boston. The Beacons improved to 14-11-1 on the season and will travel to Rochester, NY on Saturday, March 3 to take on the number one seed Rochester Institute of Technology at 5:00 p.m. in the ECAC East semifinals. The Huskies fell to 8-17-1 as their season comes to an end.

Belmonte’s first goal of the day came on a feed from senior defenseman Melissa Wigmore (Duxbury, MA) at 5:37 of the third period and proved to be the game-winner, giving UMB a 3-0 lead. Southern Maine pulled to within a goal when Megan Irving (Cumberland, ME) redirected a feed from Katie Quartuccio (Poughkeepsie, NY) for her sixth goal of the season at 9:12 of the final period and Lauren Pierce (Westport, CT) and Caitlin Tassone (Woburn, MA) set up Kristen Wolejko (South Windsor, CT) for her first collegiate goal at the 12:56 mark of the third stanza. Belmonte gave UMass Boston some breathing room with her 20th goal of the season, which was also her school-record tying seventh power play score of the season on an assist from junior forward Katherine Wall (Arlington, MA) at 14:37 of the third period for a 4-2 margin.

Junior forward Lauren O’Connor (Everett, MA) opened the scoring for the Beacons with her first career shorthanded goal coming on a helper from sophomore blueliner Sarah Cronin (Wakefield, MA) at 4:17 of the second session. Freshman defenseman Stephanie Medeiros (Somerset, MA) set up senior forward Andrea Ciarletta (Watertown, MA) for her 98th career goal to increase the UMass Boston lead to 2-0 with 1:48 left to go in the second period. Freshman defenseman Katelyn Pohlman (Newton, MA) capped the scoring with an assist from freshman defenseman Amanda Cianciulli (Billerica, MA) for a power play tally with 3:03 remaining in the game.

Sophomore goaltender Jessica Sams (Bellingham, MA) earned the victory for the Beacons with 21 saves, while Jen Arno (Westford, MA) stopped 37 shots in 56:57 of play, before yielding to Emily Barrett (Westport, MA), who was untested in the final 3:03 of action.

UMass Boston women’s ice hockey will make its third trip to the ECAC East Semifinals in its fourth year of existence.