Old Westbury, NY-The University of Bridgeport women's soccer team captured the school's first-ever East Coast Conference Women's Soccer Championship Tournament title with a 3-0 win over the Dowling College Golden Lions on Sunday afternoon in a match played on Presidents Field on the campus of New York Tech.   The win also gives the Purple Knights an automatic bid to the 2009 NCAA Division II Women's Soccer Championship Tournament that will begin next week. This year's trip will be UB third straight trip to the NCAA Championship.

With the win, Bridgeport heads into the NCAA's with a 16-1-3 record. Dowling is now 13-5-1 overall.

Freshman Asia Pulse (New Haven, CT) got the Purple Knights on the board first when she scored her seventh goal of the season off a cross from junior Elin Svsvarsdottir (Reykjavik, Iceland) at the 26:34 mark. 

The match entered the second half with the Purple Knights holding a 1-0 lead before junior Linda Velaj (Stamford, CT) added an insurance goal to make the score 2-0 in favor of Bridgeport at the 65:17 mark when she hit the back of net of an assist from sophomore Katie Stanley (Oxon, England).. The goal is Velaj's ninth of the year.

Freshman Becky Wallis (Rockville Centre, NY) salted the game away with her second goal of the 2009 campaign with just over five minutes to make the final score 3-0.

Junior goalkeeper Emeile Karstrom (Everod, Sweden), who was named the ECC Tournament's Most Outstanding Player, made seven saves to notch back-to-back clean sheets, after blanking Queens, 2-0, in the semifinals.

Bridgeport will now await word on its opponent in the NCAA Tournament. Pairings will be announced on Monday evening at 7:00 p.m.