KEENE, N.H. 11/4/08 - Sophomore forward Katie Bradford (Lebanon, N.H.) netted three goals to lead third seed Keene State to a 4-0 shutout victory over sixth seed Plymouth State University at Owl Athletic Complex on Tuesday night.

Keene State (15-6) will travel to Eastern Conn. and face the second-seeded Warriors on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. PSU concludes its season with a 5-9-4 mark. 

Bradford opened the scoring for the Owls at the 15:21 mark of the first half and added two second half goals.  "It's been a while since I scored, so it was nice to break the drought," said Bradford, who leads the LEC with 17 goals. "We worked a lot yesterday in practice getting the through balls to the forwards and it worked really well tonight"

"She had a couple of rough games recently and wasn't putting the ball in the back of the net," said KSC Coach Denise Lyons.  "Tonight she put her chances away.  Katy was cool; calm collected and finished them off tonight. That's why she's leading the conference in goals."

Senior Michelle Boland had an opportunity to give the owls an early lead, but Panther freshman goalie Angelina LaBroad (Hampton, N.H.) just got her finger tips on the ball and steered it wide of the post.

Bradford and Boland netted goals 52 seconds apart to give KSC a 2-0 lead.  Bradford took a lead pass from freshman Samantha Jo Saltalamaccia (Sandown, N.H.) and beat LaBroad with a shot into the far corner of the net. 

Less than a minute later, LaBroad got a piece of Boland's shot, but the ball had enough momentum to make it into the net.

KSC had a pair of opportunities to increase its lead with 14 minutes to go in the half. A drive by junior Molly Brunelle (Walpole, N.H.) was corralled by LaBroad and Boland's attempt just missed the far post.

The Owls added to their lead less than a minute into the second half. Sent in alone by Saltalamaccia, Bradford went top shelf for her second of the game.

LaBroad kept the Owls at bay with a pair of nice saves off the foot of sophomore Nora Mahoney (Belchertown, Mass.) and Brunelle.

Bradford's third goal of the game made it a 4-0 game at the 61:20 mark. She went around Labroad and tucked the ball into the open net.

A busy Labroad, who finished with 16 saves, continued her strong play, stopping a breakaway shot by freshman Tara Nathan (Bethel, Conn.) with nine minutes to play.  

Owl junior goalie Samantha Hirsh stopped five shots to notch her third shutout of the season.

KSC has never lost to the Panthers in five LEC tournament meetings.