KEENE, N.H. – The Keene State College field hockey team did plenty of things that first-year head coach
Leslie Smith was looking for in a bounce-back performance for the Owls on Wednesday evening – play tough defense, possess the ball while playing and passing as a team, and create plenty of offensive chances. A checkmark on nearly all accounts. But Western New England goalkeeper Alex Tardugno stood on her head to hand KSC a frustrating result, making a whopping 23 saves in a shutout as the Owls could not get anything by her in a 1-0 loss at the Owl Athletic Complex.
It would not take a deep look at the box score for that number to pop out, as KSC (4-2) had a 29-15 edge in shots (24-11 on goal) and a 16-6 gap in corners. In the final 15 minutes, the Owls outshot the Golden Bears (4-1) 11-1. Keene State had three corners in the opening two minutes of the final period and then closed with three more in the final four minutes. But they never could solve Tardugno (or in one case WNE's defender that cleared a ball off the line), with the Golden Bears' keeper stopping
Sophia Merenda twice in three seconds less than a minute into the fourth before, 11 seconds later, a ball actually might have gotten past her only to see Kamryn Miller deny Merenda again by clearing the ball away as the last line of defense. KSC continued to seemingly wear down Western New England as the fourth quarter went on, with
Lilah Carr,
Grace Seabury, and
Meghan Daileanes creating ample chances late in the period only to see Tardugno add six saves to her total in the last seven minutes. That trio combined for 13 shots on the afternoon-turned-early evening, with
Emma Bazin also firing off nine including six on target.
Even more frustrating for the Owls? Western New England, who had just one credited shot (that went wide) over the game's final 17 minutes needed just one corner a minute into overtime to break through. Miller again came up with a big defensive play to deny Bazin a chance in the circle and passed up the left side where Mikayla Mrzywka eventually moved around
Belle Hemond – who mostly limited her to lower-danger scoring chances for most of the afternoon – and earned Western New England a corner. Tessa Ebreo inserted it to the top of the circle to Analise Trani, who passed to Mrzywka on her left. The visitors' leading scorer wound up for a shot that KSC keeper
Tori Kelly seemed to be in position for, but Ebreo tipped it in right in front to give the Golden Bears their fourth straight win in a head-to-head series they began with a 1-10 record in.
Kelly did not have to make as many stops as Tardugno, but did make 10, including five in five key minutes late in the third to keep the game scoreless. The Golden Bears had a game-high seven shots in that quarter, plus-one in that category in that period, but otherwise were limited to just eight shot attempts in the other 46:13.
Tardugno also made three stops in rapid succession within 10 seconds of each other off a Keene State corner with about seven minutes to go in the first half as the Owls outshot WNE 8-2 in the second quarter but still could not break through.
KSC's 24 shots on target were a season-high despite the shutout as WNE improved to 2-6 in Keene all-time.
The Owls are back in action to continue a three-game homestand when they open Little East Conference play at home against the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth (1-4) on Saturday (September 19) at 2:00 p.m. Western New England, whose only loss on the season was a 2-0 home defeat against then-No. 24 Worcester Polytechnic Institute in a game they had a 10-6 edge in shots on goal, hosts Roger Williams University (5-2, 1-0 CNE) on the same day at 1:00 p.m.
