CASTLETON, Vt. – Thursday night, it was three goals in a little over eight fourth quarter minutes that propelled the Keene State College field hockey team to a semifinal victory.  Tonight, it was a trio of tallies just 7:23 apart in a first quarter flurry that proved to be the difference-maker, and because of it the Owls are back in their rightful place among the Little East Conference – at the top – as they gained revenge on Vermont State University Castleton with a 3-2 victory at Dave Wolk Stadium on Saturday night.

Highlights...coming soon

KSC (16-6) rode a strong offense to a program-best 9-0 start earlier this fall and has seen their forwards click again at exactly the right time.  Because of it, their season will continue this coming week in the NCAA tournament, with the bracket to be announced on the selection show on ncaa.com tomorrow night (Sunday, November 10) at 9:30 p.m.  The Owls are no stranger to the dance, which features 28 teams (18 automatic qualifiers and 10 at-large bids), having qualified 14 previous times and reaching the second round in 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2018.

Meghan Daileanes sparked the Keene uprising in Thursday night's win, and again proved to be the scoring spark tonight, banging home a rebound of a Grace Bazin shot for a critical Owl goal that tied it 1-1 just 4:40 in.  Haley Lassen had scored to put the Spartans, who defeated KSC 6-1 in the regular season meeting between the two teams on October 22 to earn the right to host the final, ahead on a rebound goal following Jess Smithson's (two goals and an assist on October 22) blast on a corner chance.

KSC was far from done, using a pair of corners just two minutes apart to jump in front by two goals in a quarter where they initially found themselves trailing.  First, at the 9:59 mark, Molly Murray inserted to Elyse Picard 20 yards out, who then threaded a perfect pass to Bazin on the left side of the circle for a 2-1 lead as she beat Castleton goalkeeper Zoe Martin to her left and the far post.  It was a different-looking play only two minutes later that helped double the advantage, as Stefanakos passed to Megan Goodwin at the top to begin the corner, with the Keene native finding Murray to her left for a blast from distance that found its way in.  The tally was the Owl senior's 11th of the season, more than doubling her previous season-high.  She has scored in seven of the last 11 games, adding more depth to KSC's scoring unit – which proved to be a massive favor in returning the Little East championship trophy to Keene for the 15th time and first since 2018.  The Owls had been blanked in each of their last two conference title games by 1-0 finals, including last year at the University of Southern Maine, but this time around saw four different people score in the semifinal win and three different goal scorers tonight.  Murray and Bazin scored two apiece.

Backed by senior defender and 2024 Little East tournament Most Outstanding Player Hannah Wood, KSC's defense clamped down in the second half to lock down the win.  After Ava Laross made it 3-2 on a goal with 12:06 left in regulation, KSC successfully killed off seven Spartan corners in the final six minutes, blocking two shots from the attempts and preventing a shot at all on two others.  KSC goalkeeper Gorman stopped potential game-tying chances from Peyton Richardson and Gwyn Vincent off a corner with a little over a minute to go as the Owls weathered being two players down on yellow cards in the final 1:58 and then three players down in the final 22.2 seconds as Murray pickpocketed Mackenna Roberson to drain the final seconds and kick off KSC's celebration.

Ten of Castleton's 18 corners came in the fourth quarter, with the Owls denying nine of them.  Gorman made five stops in the winning effort.  Castleton got an 11 save effort from Martin, but fell to 0-2 in title games on their home field, also falling to KSC in 2018 (2-1).  The hosts won their lone LEC title in 2022 when they upset top-seeded Southern Maine (2-1) in Gorham as the No. 3 seed.

Keene State is now 15-7 in the Little East final in program history and has appeared in 85 percent of the league championship games since joining in 1997.
"It was a hard-fought battle tonight by both teams," said KSC head coach Amy Watson, who moved within one win of 500 for her career.  "Our offense was hot in the first quarter and then our defense dug in and held them off.  I'm proud of the way we played tonight.  We went a full 60 minutes."

"It feels great to bring the championship back to Keene," she added.  "These seniors have done a great job carrying us all year, and I am happy they'll get a chance to experience the national tournament."

With her next win, Watson would become just the sixth active coach with at least 500 victories across all three divisions of NCAA field hockey (Sharon Pfluger, TCNJ; Missy Meharg, Maryland; Dawn Chamberlin, Salisbury; Sally Starr, Boston University; Sandy Miller, East Stroudsburg).

It marked Keene State's third Little East Conference team championship of the fall, with both men's and women's cross country teams taking home their respective titles last weekend, surpassing the two (women's cross country, men's basketball) from the 2023-2024 academic year with two seasons still left to play.

KSC will find out who, when, and where they will play in the NCAA tournament tomorrow night, with first round games being held on Wednesday.  Second and third round action is next weekend.  Stay tuned to keeneowls.com for updates.