DANBURY, Conn. 4/2/11 – The Keene State College women's lacrosse team opened their Little East Conference regular season schedule with a thrilling, 12-10, come-from-behind victory over the Western Connecticut State University Colonials on Saturday afternoon.

Trailing 10-5 in the second half with 19:50 remaining, the Owls (3-4, 1-0 LEC) started to play smarter and took control of the game. "We knew we had plenty of time," said head coach Katie Arsenault. "We settled the ball and started to look for good shots."

"We knew in the second half we had to get in gear and put the ball in the goal," said junior Caitlyn Corace (Mahopac, N.Y.).  "We were hitting the goalie early in the game and we knew that if we played our game we could comeback."

Corace's goal at the 7:20 mark of the second period evened the game at 10-10. "I was cutting across and Sammie (Benson) gave me a great pass," said Corace. "I cut into the middle and beat my defender and fired the shot past the goalie."

35 seconds later the junior answered with the game's eventual winning tally. "Jill (Kirk) was driving to the goal from behind and my defender went to her to double and I cut in and she got a pass over the top to me and I beat the goalie to the stick side," continued Corace. "It was great.  We were really fired up.  We knew we could beat this team."

For Keene State, Corace led all scorers with six goals and Lauren Brown (Agawam, MA) added two.  Emily Persano (Somers, CT), Jill Kirk (Port Jefferson Station, NY), Lauren Sawyer (Westbrook, ME), and Missy Luzzi (Oakland, NJ) scored one goal apiece in the victory.

Leading the way for the WestConn (4-4, 0-1 LEC) was junior Lauen Poppe (Brookfield, CT) with three goals. Also scoring for the Colonials were sophomore Devon Edwards (Islip, NY) and sophomore Nicole Perrone (Brookfield, CT) with two goals each, followed by junior Brianna Mitterando (Mastic Beach, NY), junior Jessica Bouwman (New Milford, CT), and freshman Hyla Costello (Southington, CT) who each scored once. 

Freshman goalkeeper Karli Portnoy (Sea Cliff, NY) made 12 saves for WestConn, but suffered the loss, while Erin Taylor (Brewster, NY) recorded 10 saves to earn the victory for Keene State.

The Owls outshot the Colonials 25-20, including 16-9 in the dramatic second period.

This isn't how the Owls would have drawn it up, but the Owls will use this experience as they go down the stretch this season.  "You have to learn how to play under pressure," said Arsenault. "It was nice to see the team pull itself out of a huge hole."

"A win like this really gives us confidence because they're good team and one we had to beat," said Corace. "It will also help us going into our next few games, especially Eastern Connecticut next Saturday."

The Owls have a home game on Monday, against in-state rival New England College at 4 p.m. before they travel to Eastern Conn. State on Saturday for a key Little East Conference show-down in Willimantic, Conn.