Box Score KEENE, NH – The Keene State College field hockey team is returning to the Little East Conference championship game for the 14th time in program history. Sami Smith's goal 25:46 into the contest proved to be the game winner as the Owls eliminated Western Connecticut 3-0 Thursday night in the conference semifinals at Owl Stadium.
KSC, which is on a 14 game win streak, improves to 18-4 on the season and will host UMass Dartmouth in the LEC tournament championship Saturday at 12 p.m. The Owls are in search of back-to-back titles and their 10th overall LEC Championship since 1998. UMass Dartmouth advanced to the final by eliminating the No. 7 seed Southern Maine 1-0 in overtime.
"I thought we played pretty well," head coach Amy Watson said of tonight's effort. "When you get to this part of the tournament everyone plays hard all the time and we had to work for it but I feel like we played a little bit better than we did on Tuesday night."
Smith gave the Owls a 1-0 lead when she received the ball on the run, beat two Colonial defenders and snuck it past the goalkeeper for her 14th goal of the season.
Fifteen minutes into the second half, Western Connecticut goalkeeper Kristy Trotta made two great saves on back-to-back shots from the Owls but Renaud gathered the rebound and found the back of the net to increase Keene State's lead to 2-0.
The Colonials best opportunity to put one on the board came on a shot from Erica Tanius that was batted out of the air on the goal line by defender Marita Brothers.
Marissa Lemoine collected a Mariah Barnett pass in the 67th minute to secure the Owls trip to the championship.
Keene State finished with a convincing 28-5 shots advantage, while holding an 11-3 edge in penalty corners. Trotta was outstanding recording 19 saves in front of the Western Connecticut net, while Meaghan Dwyer was credited with two stops for the Owls.
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