KEENE, N.H 11/7/13- Senior Leddy Gallagher (Acton, Mass.) had two goals and set up the game-winner by junior Marisa Lemoine (Berlin, N.H.) with five minutes to play to lead the top-seeded Keene State College field hockey team to a come-from-behind 3-2 win over fourth seed UMass-Dartmouth in a Little East Conference semifinal tournament game played at Owl Athletic Complex on Thursday night.

Winners of seven straight games, Keene State (19-3) moves on to the finals on Saturday (12 p.m.) where they will host third seed and rival Plymouth State.  The Panthers (13-5) upset second seed Bridgewater State 5-0.  KSC and PSU are no strangers when it comes to the finals.  The two teams have met six times (1998, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2011).  The Owls have the upper hand winning five times, including shutouts in 2004 (2-0), 2008 (4-0) and 2011 (2-0). PSU lone win (1-0) came in 2000.

The Owls found themselves down 1-0 at the half after senior Eleanor Taylor (Fairhaven, Mass) giving the Corsairs the lead with her 17th goal of the season.

"I knew it would be a tough game," said KSC Coach Amy Watson. "We came out slow, but we stepped it up in the second half. We were more aggressive and Leddy tore it up.  "She was the momentum changer for us."  

Gallagher then went to work.  She tied the game at the 49:38 mark of the second half and then put the Owls on top 2-1 seven minutes later with her second goal of the game and fourth of the season. Gallagher displayed her speed and superb ball handling skills on her first goal as she weaved around Corsair defenders for nearly three-fourths of the field without losing possession. The senior raced into the circle and blasted the equalizer past a sprawled UMD senoor goalie Lauren O'Brien (Rochester, Mass.).

"I never shoot the ball.  I usually pass when I get in front of the net, but I never wanted anything more than to win this game," said Gallagher. "I wasn't ready for my season to be over yet.  This team is so special we deserve to be in the championship." 

The lead didn't last long.  Senior Tori Dolce (Jamestown, R.I.) tied the game again two minutes later. 

The game remained tied until Gallagher found Lemoine for the go-ahead goal. Gallagher penetrated the Corsair's defense and fired the ball on net. Teammate Marisa Lemoine (Berlin, N.H.) got her stick on the shot, causing the ball to trickle past O'Brien.(Rochester, Mass.) for the game-deciding score. "Leddy was on fire today, she really came up big for us," said Lemoine, who upped her goal total to 13 on the season.  "She had a nice ball at the top of the circle and I got a nice tip on it.  I redirected it and it went in.  We worked extremely hard in the second half and stated using our speed."

Keene State had a wide advantage in shots (25-4) and corners (12-3), but had a hard time putting away the Corsairs (14-7).

Sophomore Meaghan Dwyer (Rutland, Mass.) didn't record a save in goal for KSC.  O'Brien finished the game with 11 saves for UMD.