The Brandeis University softball team survived its first elimination game by defeating top-seeded Roger Williams University, 8-0.

Rookie Emily Vaillette (Milford, N.H.) picked up her second win of the ECAC tournament with a five-inning complete-game shutout of the host Hawks. She allowed three hits and struck out one while walking none for her team-leading seventh win of the season and 10th complete game.

Offensively, junior 1B Kaitlin Streilein (Point Pleasant, N.J.) kept up her hot hitting, going 3-3 with a double, an RBI and two runs scored. Senior CF Marissa Rubin (Teaneck, N.J.) was the squad's only other multiple hitter, batting 2-3 with a run scored, while rookie SS Chelsea Korp (Worcester, Mass.) had an RBI triple for the only other extra-base hit of the contest. The Judges' big inning was the fifth, when, with two outs, seven straight batters connected for hits. Korp's three-bagger drove home the only run Brandeis would need.

Brandeis tacked on three more runs in the fifth for the walk-off victory, as two came home on an error struck by rookie catcher Erin Ross (Manalapan, N.J.). Junior 2B Amelia Schimmel (Oakland, Calif.) ended the game with an RBI single.

Sixth-seeded Brandeis now advances to play #5 Western New England College in an elimination contest of the ECAC tournament at 10 a.m. on Mother's Day. A win will put the Judges in the championship round, needing to defeat #2 Western Connecticut State twice to take home Brandeis's third ECAC crown of 2006-07. WCSU defeated Brandeis, 8-1, in a semifinal meeting between the two teams.