KEENE, N.H. – Prolific goal scorer Grace Bazin opened the 2025 Keene State College field hockey season with another hat trick, and yet that will only be a footnote in the end on what was a special night as her and four other goal scorers helped provide a win that will reverberate much further than just the 7-2 final on the scoreboard.  The defending Little East Conference champion Owls delivered head coach Amy Watson her 500th career coaching victory at the Owl Athletic Complex on a Friday night that began with a double rainbow thanks to a brief rain shower during pregame warmups and ended with a confetti shower for Watson as the horn sounded.

Postgame Interview (Coach Watson)
Postgame Interview (Grace Bazin)

Already a 15-time conference champion who has reached the second round of the NCAA tournament five times, Watson – who began her coaching career at KSC in 1986 and has been in the Elm City ever since – now joins just 13 other individuals across all three divisions of NCAA field hockey to have surpassed 500 career wins.  She is just the ninth to do it at one division, and just the fourth to do it all at a Division III school, joining Enza Steele of Lynchburg University (1979-2023), Dawn Chamberlin of Salisbury University (1987-present), and Jan Trapp of Messiah University (1973-2011).  Watson has won 20 or more games three times and has had just one losing season and nine wins over ranked teams.  Her 15 conference championships in the LEC are 12 more than the next closest team.

Coming off a 26-goal campaign in 2024 that featured four hat tricks, Bazin – now joined by her sister (freshman Emma) – picked up right where she left off, scoring three times as the Owls overwhelmed the Raiders (0-1).  The Westminster, Vt. native opened the scoring for the season 13:51 in and then scored twice in barely over three minutes bookending halftime to double a 2-0 lead.  KSC led 3-0 at the break thanks to her tally with 3.2 seconds left in the first half as she threaded a shot between two Rivier defenders and beat goalkeeper Lily Gifford off a feed from her sister, their first ever connection at the collegiate level.  Grace Seabury and Kalina Piasecki each also added goals within the first 10 minutes of the second half to balloon the lead to 6-0, and the Owls were well on their way from there.  Lucey Dickinson, who bidded for her first career goal in the 25th minute but was denied, capped off the home team's scoring on the night with just under 10 minutes to go, making it 7-1.  Jennifer Erikson was also in on the scoring party, tallying her third goal in the last eight games dating back to last season.

KSC outshot the Raiders 36-9 in the game, including 19-0 in the second quarter alone and 31-4 over the opening three.

Gifford finished with 11 saves in 45 minutes of action in the loss, while Clara Gorman played the first half and made one stop to earn the win.  Molly Diamondstein made her collegiate debut in the cage over the final 30 minutes, sporting a customized Keene State mask, and made five saves.

The Owls also had a 15-2 advantage in penalty corners, with Rivier not earning any until the fourth quarter.

Keene State, picked second in the Little East preseason poll, is back in action again at home on Wednesday, September 3 at 6:30 p.m. when they host Colby-Sawyer College.  Rivier, coming off a 7-11 season, travels to Salem State University on the same day.