"It was supposed to be a give-and-go with Fior (Arrindell), but their defender raced out to break it up," Broderick said. "Fortunately, I had enough time to move the ball to the left and get a shot off. (Assistant coach) Scott (Smith) always says to get your shot on net and something will happen."

NU (18-4) now will face Michigan State (22-2), which defeated Harvard, 4-3, earlier in the morning game. Northeastern will be making its sixth quarterfinal appearance in the tournament. The NU Huskies are now 3-0 against UConn in the NCAA tournament. Each time Northeastern defeated Connecticut in previous years, the Huskies have reached the semifinals (1988 and 1996). The NU win also avenged a 2-1 overtime loss to UConn on the last regular-season game of the year.

Northeastern escaped the first half with a scoreless tie, after UConn outshot NU 8-0 and held a 5-0 penalty corner advantage. However, NU senior Emily Roy came up with three saves and the defense managed to thwart Connecticut's attack and keep UConn off the board.

"We just dug in and gutted it out," senior Maureen Connelly said. "Our goal all year was to make it past the first round this year. It wouldn't have been good enough for us if we lost today."

Northeastern's grit paid its dividends in the second half. The NU Huskies came out with a sense of urgency. After not being awarded a corner in the first half, NU earned three in the first 15 minutes of play. On the third penalty corner, Mari Creatini sent the ball to stick-stop Leigh Shea. Broderick then moved the ball to her left to evade an oncoming defender, before blasting a shot across the face of the net and into the cage at 20:03 of the second period.

"At halftime, we said to ourselves 'it's a new game'," Broderick said. "We could forget about the first half and put it behind us. We worked all year to put ourselves in position to go far in the tournament and all our lines, from the defense ot the forwards, picked it up in the second half. It was a great win."

Northeastern continued to dominate the second half, outshooting Connecticut 6-2 and forcing seven penalty corners. Prior to Broderick's goal, NU had its best scoring opportunity nine minutes after the break, when Liane Dixon rifled a shot from just inside the circle that was initially stopped by UConn goalie Maureen Butler (two saves). Connelly gathered the rebound and knocked the ball towards the empty net, only to have Connecticut defender Laura Thibodeau swoop in and make the save.

The shutout was the third straight for Northeastern, which blanked Vermont (5-0) and Maine (4-0) to win the America East Championship. NU has 11 shutouts this season.

Scoring:
First Half:
No scoring

Second Half:
NU, Sarah Broderick (Leigh Shea, Mari Creatini) 20:03

Shots:
Connecticut, 10
Northeastern, 6

Penalty Corners:
Connecticut, 7
Northeastern, 7

Defensive Saves:
Connecticut, 1
Northeastern, 0