WEST HARTFORD, CONN. —- NJIT Women's Soccer is in!

The Highlanders secured a berth in their first-ever America East Tournament with a 1-0 road shutout against the Hartford Hawks Thursday evening at Al-Marzook Field at Alumni Stadium.

NJIT (7-10-1, 5-3-1 AE) clinched its return to conference postseason play in the 69th minute on a Lauren Chamberlain-to-Emma Bitar connection. Chamberlain, NJIT's leading scorer her first two seasons (2019-20), recorded her first point of 2021 by beating a defender near the left corner flag and delivering a perfect cross to Bitar, who was playing in only her third game of the year after working her way back from injury. The header goal was the sophomore's first of her collegiate career.

NJIT's bend-but-don't-break defense, along with some lucky bounces, helped the Highlanders close out the regular season with its fourth straight shutout. Hartford (8-4-4, 3-3-3 AE) outshot NJIT 28-5 but were only able to muster seven shots on goal in the game. All seven were stopped by redshirt junior Molly Saylor, who ended the regular season with 99 total saves. 

In addition, two of Hartford's shots deflected off the crossbar and safely out harm's way.

OTHER NOTES

• NJIT finished the regular season with a 5-3-1 record (16 pts) and tied with UMass Lowell for second place in the conference. UMass Lowell owns the tiebreaker so NJIT will be the third seed in the America East Tournament and host six-seeded New Hampshire on Sunday, October 31 at 1 p.m.
• The Highlanders will be making their third appearance in a conference tournament in four years and first since making the 2019 ASUN Tournament. That 2019 squad upset third-seeded Liberty to advance to the semifinals before falling to second-seeded Lipscomb.
• After opening the season winless in a tough four-match stretch - and going winless in year one of America East play in 2020 - NJIT ended the season with a four-match unbeaten streak to make the conference tourney for the first time.
• Bitar was the tenth different Highlander to score this season, the most since 2019 (11 different scorers).
• Saylor now has 13 career shutouts (4 in 2019, 1 in 2020, 8 in 2021) and has tied Highlander great Amelia Sapirman (2016-18) for the most in school history.