COLCHESTER, VT.  3/8/12 – Senior Caitlyn Corace's (Mahopac, N.Y.) goal at the 2:37 mark of overtime lifted the Keene State College women's lacrosse team to a season-opening 10-9 win over St. Michael's College at Duffy Field in Colchester, Vt. on Thursday.

A team in transition with eight freshmen and seven sophomores, the Owls looked to couple of seniors for the go-ahead goal with Sammi Benson (Hampstead, N.H.) setting up Corace for the game winner. 

"We got the ball back and had a really nice transition up the field, said Benson. "Caitlyn is real sneaky and she got wide open. I passed it to her and she put it in the net."

"Sammi was behind the net.  Their goalie was looking at her and she got the ball over the net to me. Before the goalie could turn, I put the ball in the net,' said Corace, who finished the game with four goals.  It was pretty cool." 

Keene State coach Katie Arsenault was pleased with her teams' first-game performance. "It was a good first step for us," she said. "We made some mistakes that we can work on, but St. Michael's is a better team, so it was good competition for us."

"Other than a few players, no one had set foot on the field yet before, so I was pretty happy how things turned out," Arsenault added.  "We're only going to get better with game experience."

Junior Lauren Brown (Agawam, Mass.) scored three goals, sophomore Julie Trombetta (Trumbull, Conn.) netted a pair and sophomore Ashley Borjeson (Londonderry, N.H.) had a single goal for the Owls.  Benson had four assists. 

Senior Eliza Scoba (Franklin, Mass.) scored three goals and sophomore Crystal King (South Burlington, Vt.) finished with two goals for the Purple Knights (0-1), who were also playing their first game of the season.

Keene State scored on its first shot of the game with Brown giving KSC an early 1-0 lead.  A free position goal by Borjeson and Trombetta's first goal of the game made it 3-0.  After St. Michael's closed the gap to 3-2, Brown and Corace scored in a span of just over a minute to push the Owls lead up to 5-2.  The Purple Knights cut the Owls lead to 5-4 at the half.

Less than a minute into the second half, St. Mike's scored to tie the game at 5-all, but the Owls quickly responded with the next four goals, taking a 9-5 lead on a free position goal by Brown at the 13:48 mark.

The pesky Purple Knights fought back, netting the next four goals with freshman Hannah Beardsely (Essex, Mass.) sending the game into overtime, scoring with 5:39 to play. 

St. Michael's senior goalie Sandy Palumbo (Guilford, Conn,), sister of former Owl Shannon Palumbo, stopped shots by Brown and Corace in the final minute of regulation.

KSC sophomore goalie Erin Taylor (Brewster, N.Y.) made a key save on a shot by Scoba just 47 seconds into overtime.  After some back-and forth play at midfield, the ball finally found its way to Benson who did the rest. 

"We didn't know what to expect because we have so many new players, so it feel really nice to come out and win our first game," said Benson.

"We're really excited about this win because it gives us a lot of confidence," said Corace.  "We can go into our next game knowing we have a win under our belt." 

St. Michael's outshot the Owls 32-28 while KSC had a slim advantage in draw controls 13-10 and ground balls 28-25.

Taylor finished the game with 14 saves while Palumbo stopped 15 shots.

Keene State next game will be next Monday at the Spring Fling in West Palm Beach, Florida when they face SUNY-Brockport.  Brockport has gone to the NCAA tournament the past two years.