KEENE, N.H. 11/5/04 - Senior Kaitlin Henley (Somers, N.Y.) and sophomore Nichole Garneau (Twin Mountain, N.H.) each had two goals to lift the top-seed Keene State College field hockey team to the finals of the Little East Conference Tournament with a 5-0 shutout victory over fourth-seed Framingham State College on a windy Friday afternoon at Owl Athletic Complex.

The win propels the Owls (13-7) into Saturday's championship game against second-seed Plymouth State University, who defeated Worcester State College, 3-2, in a later semifinal round game. Since capturing the first two LEC tournament titles in 1998 and 1999, KSC was defeated by Plymouth (1-0) in 2000, and last year to the University of Southern Maine (3-1). It was the first trip to the LEC semifinals for Framingham, who concludes its season at 10-7.

KSC dominated play from the start with a 25-6 shot advantage.

"We dominated, but we didn't play as good as I would have hoped," said KSC coach Amy Watson. "We are really going to have to bring our game for tomorrow's championship match."

The Owls wasted no time getting on the board with a goal from Garneau (Twin Mountain, N.H.) at the 4:04 mark in the first half. With FSC goalie Lindsay McKearney (North Attleboro, Mass.) out of position, Garneau took a pass from Katy Pokrywka (Roxbury, Conn.) to put the Owls up 1-0. Just seven minutes later, Garneau put the ball in the net for her second goal of the day. Henley netted a goal at the 7:20 mark to close out the first half.

FSC's best opportunity to score came at the 22:26 mark of the second half when junior forward Jennifer Johnson (Uxbridge, Mass.) fired a shot that KSC goalie Sara Joyce (Hampstead, N.H.) stopped at close range. Keene State added to its lead with goals from Henley and Amanda Rosenbeck (Wilder, Vt.) later in the half.

Joyce (four saves) and Michelle Codding (Jericho, Vt.) (0 saves) both saw action in goal for KSC. Lindsay McKearney (North Attleboro, Mass.) had a busy day in goal with 14 saves for Framingham State.

Keene State, who defeated Plymouth (3-2) on the road earlier this season, will face-off in the championship game on Saturday (Noon) at Owl Athletic Complex.

GAME #2 KEENE, N.H. 11/05/04 - Freshman forward Jenna Lace (Pascoag, R.I.) scored the game-winning goal and added an assist to lead second-seed Plymouth State University field hockey team to a 3-2 victory over sixth-seed Worcester State College in a Little East Conference semifinal game played Friday at Owl Athletic Complex.

PSU (15-3) will be making its sixth appearance in the finals scheduled for Noon on Saturday against top-seed Keene State. KSC edged Plymouth, 3-2, during the regular season. Plymouth won three straight LEC championships from 2000-2002 before being knocked out in the semifinals last season by Southern Maine (2-1). Worcester concludes its season at 11-7.

Plymouth struck first on a goal by senior forward Amanda Gutowski (Conway, N.H.) at the 4:35 mark of the first half. Christina Farias (East Dennis, Mass.) had an assist on the play. Sophomore Melanie Bates (Derry, N.H.) made it a 2-0 game with a minute and 30 seconds left in the first half.

Lace's goal just nine minutes into the second half stood up as the game winner in a battle to qualify for the title game.

Worcester rallied with consecutive goals from Courtney Vogel (Gardner, Mass.), and just three minutes later from Kara Walker (Templeton, Mass.), but could not come up with the equalizer.

Katie Randall (Portsmouth, N.H.) made six stops for the Panthers, while Nichole Gomes (Harwich, Mass.) turned aside 16 shots for WSC.