KEENE, N.H.  4/30/09 - Sophomore attack Jill Kirk (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y) had five goals to lead second seed Keene State College to a 13-7 victory over rival and third seed Plymouth State University in a semifinal game of the Little East Conference Women's Lacrosse Tournament at Owl Athletic Complex on Thursday.

"It's the third time we played them, so you never know what can happen," said Kirk. "But everyone came into the game ready to play."

"Our defense was right on today. We didn't give them many good scoring opportunities," said KSC Coach Katie Arsenault. 

Keene State (11-7), which extended its winning streak to a school record seven games, will travel to Willimantic to face top seed Eastern Connecticut State in Saturday's Championship game.  The Warriors blanked fourth seed UMass-Dartmouth 16-0 in their semifinal contest. 

Plymouth State concludes its season with a 6-9 record.

Kirk scored the first two goals of the game as KSC jumped out to an early 3-0 lead.  After junior Kalie Judd (Peabody, Mass.) put PSU on the board, Keene State tacked on two more goals to go up 5-1.  KSC scored the final two goals of the half to take a 7-2 lead into the locker room.

The Panthers netted four consecutive goals coming out of the break.  The fourth goal was a man-up goal scored by sophomore Michaela Rice (Weirs Beach, N.H.) that cut the Owls lead to 7-6 at the 15:09 mark. 

Returning to the field after serving a penalty, Kirk fed sophomore Missy Luzzi (Oakland, N.J.), who put the Owls up 8-6.  "Jill gave me a great feed in transition," said Luzzi, about her key goal.  "I felt it was a turning point of the game."

KSC put the game away by scoring the next four goals to make it a 12-6 game.

Sophomore Emily Persano (Somers, Conn.) finished with three goals and an assist while sophomore Jenny Lillis (West Islip, N.Y.) scored twice and had a helper.  Junior Dene Tully (Peabody, Mass.), and senior Molly Corcoran (Concord, N.H.) also scored goals for KSC and sophomore Lauren Sawyer (Westbrook, Me.) dished out three assists.

Judd finished the game with three goals and two assists.  Freshman Nicole Grover (Yarmouth, Me.) scored twice and freshman Brianna Davis (Framingham, Mass.) chipped in with a goal for the Panthers.

Senior Jen Gearing (Westfield, Mass.) made 10 saves for the Owls. 

Freshman Michelle Leonard (Hopkinton, Mass.) stopped nine shots for PSU.

Keene State, which won a pair of close games against Plymouth State (12-10 and 15-12) during the regular season, registered its first tournament victory against PSU in five meetings.

KSC will be making its second trip to the LEC finals.  They lost to PSU 9-5 in the 2004 championship.

KSC lost to Eastern 14-13 earlier in the season.  "It's going to be a tough game against Eastern," said Arsenault.  "If we come out and play like we did today, we'll be fine.  We're a whole different team. The fact that we lost by just one goal before, I think we have a good shot."

"It's the first time we've been to the finals in five years, so everyone is going to be pumped" said Kirk.

Highlight Video by Richard Orr