SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Mikayla Mrzywka scored twice in less than five minutes spanning the first and second quarters before Tesse Ebreo scored with five minutes to go in the first half as Western New England University took a 3-0 lead in the opening 30 minutes and went on to spoil the Keene State College field hockey team's unbeaten start, downing the Owls 4-1 at Golden Bear Stadium in non-conference action Wednesday night.

The loss is the Owls' (6-1) third straight to WNE (4-2), and first by more than two goals.  It also ends their season-opening winning streak at six games, four shy of matching last season's 10 consecutive wins to open the season.

KSC was held shotless in the opening quarter and found themselves down 1-0 in the twelfth minute after Mackenna Cooke whacked a ball into the middle of the circle.  It initially flew off of Mrzywka's, but she dove and poked a shot past Owl goalkeeper Clara Gorman's right to put her team on the board.  She doubled the Golden Bears' advantage after the home team created a turnover just 50 seconds into the quarter, moved up the right side and kept possession despite a questionable out of bounds call, eventually moving the fall disjointedly into the circle before Mrzywka corralled and beat Gorman to her left side.  Western New England scored twice in 4:42, and eventually tacked on another at the 25:03 mark when Kara Edwards chipped a ball over Gorman on a corner play for Tessa Ebreo to pot the rebound after Belle Hemond attempted to deny the chance.

The Owls made good on their own corner chance less than two minutes later to cut their deficit to two, as Alessandra Vidal found Grace Bazin right in front of the cage, and Division III's leading scorer did not miss.  It was nearly a one-goal game with 2:40 to go in the opening half, but WNE goalkeeper Alex Tardugno kicked on a tip-in bid from Kalina Piasecki.  Tardugno made seven saves on the evening, four of which came in the second quarter.  KSC outshot the Golden Bears 8-7 in the first half despite trailing on the scoreboard.

The Owls pressed WNE right out of the locker room break, earning five penalty corner opportunities in the opening 6:18, but both shots off those chances were denied by Tardugno.  Keene State's offense was then almost entirely shut down from there, with only a small flurry early in the fourth.  At that point, however, they were down by three again after Gabbi Oakes redirected a Analise Trani shot into the back of the cage in the 41st minute after a corner play to make it 4-1.

Grace Murphy made a pair of defensive saves (and had three in the game) 10 seconds apart with 10 minutes to go to try to keep the Owls within reach, but they were held without a shot for the final 11:31 after Seabury was blocked off a KSC corner.

Gorman finished with six saves in three quarters for the Owls in the loss, while Molly Diamondstein made two stops, one of which came on a second quarter penalty stroke by Haley Kaczka with 10 minutes left to keep it 2-0 at that point.

WNE outshot the Owls 20-13, including 15-8 on goal.  Keene State had more corner chances (12-9) including five in the third quarter alone, but could not capitalize.

"They were a strong team and outplayed us tonight," said KSC head coach Amy Watson.  "We certainly had plenty of chances, but we could not finish tonight."

Before their current three-game winning streak in the series, Western New England had not won a head-to-head meeting since 2005, losing 10 of the first 11 meetings by a combined 58-7 score.
Keene State will open Little East Conference play on Friday (September 19) at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth (1-6) at 7:00 p.m.  The Owls have won seven straight in the series, scoring eight or more goals five times during the streak.