KEENE, N.H. – After a competitive regular season, the Keene State College men's soccer, women's soccer, and field hockey teams are preparing to compete in their respective Little East Conference tournaments later this week.
 
Winning their tournament would give the team an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. We will recap how each team has done so far this year and what to watch for from their upcoming opponent.
 
Men's Soccer
Men's Soccer enters the tournament as the No. 6 seed. The Owls quarterfinal matchup will be at No. 3 Eastern Connecticut State University (11-5-2, 6-2-0 LEC) on Tuesday. ECSU defeated Keene State in their prior matchup earlier this season on Oct. 1 3-2 at Dr. Ron Butcher Field.
 
Senior forward Mbambi Mbungu finished the regular season as the leading scorer for the Owls, picking up seven goals and four assists. Senior midfielders Declan Coughlin and Denis Fleming, along with senior forward Michael Mullen each scored four goals. Fleming also scored one of Keene State's goals against ECSU earlier this season.
 
"The team and senior leadership have worked hard this year to come together and overcome some challenges with injuries and tough results," said Keene State Men's Soccer Head Coach Matt Schmidt. "The group has found ways to put together some good performances just not quite consistently enough to get those key results. However, they have learned a lot from this season and if they can bring those lessons forward for 90 minutes we are a tough team to play against and can make a run at the LEC title."
 
Eastern Connecticut, who has won its last three games, is led by sophomore forward Logan Brennan, who scored eight goals and recorded one assist for the Warriors. Freshman midfielder Niall O'Brien added six goals and two assists, while Ryan Sirois finished with five goals and two assists. O'Brien scored a goal in ECSU's win over Keene State earlier this season.
 
Tuesday's match starts at 1 pm.
 
Women's Soccer
The women's soccer team also enters its LEC tournament as the No. 6 seed and will play at No. 3 UMass-Boston (8-8-3, 5-3 LEC) on Tuesday. UMass-Boston defeated Keene State in the lone game between the two teams earlier this season 2-1 on Oct. 15 at Dr. Ron Butcher Field.
 
Junior midfielder Elizabeth Kopicko led the Owls with nine goals this season, which is also the fourth highest total in the LEC. Senior midfielder Kayleigh Marshall, meanwhile, had four goals and five assists. Junior defender Alexa Skinner, who scored one of her two goals this season against UMass-Boston, also recorded a team-high seven assists.
 
UMass-Boston enters Tuesday's match having won seven of its last eight matches. Leading the Beacons is senior forward Kaylee Haynes with five goals and three assists. Graduate student Dani Anderson scored two of her three goals this season against the Owls.
 
"I think UMass-Boston is a good matchup for us," said Keene State Women's Soccer Head Coach Sarah Testo. "If we play our game and play how we are capable of playing, we will put our ourselves in a good position to win. We need to play with confidence and urgency."
 
Tuesday's match begins at 1 p.m.

Field Hockey
Keene State's field hockey team earned the No. 4 seed in the upcoming LEC tournament and will host No. 5 seed Plymouth State (11-5, 9-3 LEC) at Owl Athletic Complex November 1.   KSC defeated the Panthers 4-1 back on September 27 behind a goal and an assist from senior Maggie Cahoon.  

The LEC field is as tight as it has ever been, with just four games separating places 1-8.  Keene State finished in a three-way tie for second place with Castleton and Plymouth State but was given the No. 4 seed after league tiebreaking policies were applied.

On offense, Keene State is led by sophomore Irini Stefanakos, who has 13 goals and nine assists this season, including seven goals and seven assists in her last six games.  Freshman Kalina Piasecki (8-3-19) and senior Ellie Hunkins (4-6-14) are also threats in front of the cage.  Freshman Clara Gorman has started all but one game in net, with a 2.36 goals against average and a .743 save percentage.

The Panthers won four of the their final five games to close out the regular season, with the only blight being a 4-3 overtime loss to eventual league champion Southern Maine.  Junior Taylor Healey leads the team with 25 goals.

This will be the 10th time the teams have met in the postseason, and just the second meeting at the quarterfinal stage.  Keene State defeated the Panthers in the LEC Championship game in 1998, 1999, 2004, 2008, 2011, and 2013, as well as in the semifinals in 2016 and 2017, and in the quarterfinals in 2019.  PSU's only win over Keene State in postseason play came in 2000.

"Once you get to tournament it's a start of a new season," said head coach Amy Watson.  "The conference has been very competitive this year, there is no one clear cut favorite to win it all.   We need to take it day by day, game by game."

The game begins at 6 p.m.   The winner will face the winner of top seeded Southern Maine and No. 8 seeded Framingham State in the semifinals on Thursday.