'KEENE, N.H. 11/7/03 - The top seeded Keene State College Owls soared to a 6-0 shutout victory over the fourth-seeded Bridgewater State Bears in a  Little East Conference semifinal field hockey game played Friday at Owl Athletic Complex. 

This will be the fourth trip to the LEC Championships for the Owls. KSC, shooting for their third championship, won the title in 1998 and 1999.  The Owls (16-5) will face third seed Southern Maine, a 2-1 upset winner over second seed Plymouth State University. Bridgewater State falls to 10-6.

"It was really nice to come out and dominate from the start," said KSC coach Amy Watson.  "One thing that feels good is that I was able to play my whole team so we were able to get loose.  I feel confident that we'll be able to come back strong tomorrow."

Senior forward Tanya Strong (Hatfield, Mass.) led the Owls with two goals and two assists. The senior forward opened the scoring at 4:48 into the first half on a pass from Kaitlen Henley (Somers, N.Y.).  Nichole Dallas (Marlow, N.H.) made it a 2-0 game at 10:15 off a corner, and Nichole Garneau (Twin Mountain, N.H.) increased the Owls lead to 3-0 just eight minutes later.  Strong got the assist on both plays.

Amanda Rosenbeck (Wilder, VT) scored on a well -executed penalty corner off a pass from Justina Wentworth (Keene, N.H.) to make it 4-0 going into halftime. 

Returning from the break, Strong sccored her second goal of the day for her team-leading 27th goal of the season. 

Katy Pokrywka (Roxbury, Conn.) netted the final goal to give KSC the shutout victory. 

Caitlin Baril (Canton, Mass.) and Michelle Codding (Jericho, VT) split time in goal for KSC.  Baril made one save, while Codding turned aside four shots.  Lauren Mazzola (Westwood, Mass.) made 21 saves in goal before Amanda Johnson (East Bridgewater, Mass.) replaced her just under 20 minutes into the second half and made one save.