Box Score BRIDGEWATER, MASS. 11/3/12 – The third seeded Keene State College field hockey jumped out to an early lead and hung on for dear life to upset second seed Bridgewater State University 4-3 in a Little East Conference semifinal tournament game played at Swenson Field in Bridgewater, Mass on Saturday.
The Owls (15-7) advance to the LEC finals where they will play top seed UMass-Dartmouth on Sunday (1 p.m.) in North Dartmouth. The Corsairs edged fourth seed Plymouth State 3-2 in the second semifinal game. Bridgewater State falls to 17-3.
Looking to avenge a 1-0 loss to the Bears earlier in the season, Keene State took the play to Bridgewater State from the opening whistle, scoring three unanswered goals in the first half.
Crashing the net, the Owls got on the board at the 11:54 mark when freshman Lyndsie Rabenius (North Hampton, N.H.) put the ball under BSU junior goalie Kacie Sturgeon (Dartmouth, Mass.) to give KSC a 1-0 lead.
Keene State added two more goals in a span of three minutes. Sophomore Marissa Lemoine (Berlin, N.H.) took a pass from senior Alex Billert (Center Conway, N.H.) and put the ball into the top right corner to make it 2-0. A few minutes later, Billert's shot from just inside the circle found its way into the right corner of the net to give the Owls a 3-0 halftime lead.
"It was important for us to jump on them early," said KSC Coach Amy Watson. "Our offense has been pretty strong this year when we get it going."
Junior Demi Miskiv (Centerville, Mass.) scored early in the second half to make it a 3-1 game. Keene State pushed its lead back up to three goals (4-1) when Rabenius carried the ball in from 40 yards out and centered a pass to senior Kalin Billert (Center Conway, N.H.) who netted her team leading 18th goal of the season.
The Bears didn't go down without a battle. Bridgewater standout senior Shelby Farland (Fiskdale, Mass.) scored on a penalty stroke with three minutes to play and got her second goal of the game and 32nd of the year less than a minute later to cut the Owls' lead to 4-3. Bridgewater, however, would not get a shot off over the final two minutes as the visiting Owls escaped with the 4-3 victory.
"It was hectic at the end, but I was trying to make substitutions because we were playing back-to-back games," said Amy Watson. "They're a second half team, so I knew they'd come back."
Bridgewater State outshot the Owls 16-9 and had an 11-6 advantage in penalty corners. Sophomore Caitlin Davino-Draper (Hanover, Mass.) finished the game with nine saves. Freshman Chloe Audesse (Goffstown, N.H.) came in to face the penalty stroke by Farland. Sturgeon made three saves for the Bears.
Instead of returning home the Owls will head to North Dartmouth for Sunday's championship game. Keene State will be facing UMass-Dartmouth for the seventh time in the LEC tournament and the third time in the finals. Keene State defeated UMD 2-1 in the 2006 championship game and the Corsairs edged the Owls 3-2 in double-overtime in the 2009 finals.
