The Owls improve to 10-4 on the season with their
sixth straight win, and remain tied atop the Little East standings with
a perfect 7-0 conference mark. The Bears fall to 7-5 overall and 4-3 in
conference play.
Junior forward Sami Smith tallied a pair of goals to lead the Owls. Smith scored off the rebound of
a Mariah Barnett shot in the 12th minute as Keene took a 1-0 lead into the intermission.
Smith extended the Owls' advantage to 2-0
less than three minutes into the second half with her conference leading
14th goal of the season. Junior midfielder Kayla Renaud sent her classmate in on a breakaway and Smith flipped a back-hander into the left side of the net.
Smith, who had a hat-trick in Wednesday's
4-1 win over Southern Maine, now has nine goals in her last five games,
and is closing in on the top 10 in both career goals and points at Keene
State.
Keene nearly converted on back-to-back penalty
corners in the 52nd minute. Barnett rang the right post off the first
corner and junior defender Marita Brothers hit the crossbar on the second.
The Bears cut the lead in half with just eight
seconds left to play on a penalty corner as junior midfielder Brittany
Cullinane blasted a shot into the back of the net from just inside the
circle off an assist from senior midfielder Mary Dubin. The goal marked
Cullinane's team-leading seventh of the season.
Keene held a 13-7 shot advantage as well as a slight 11-10 edge in penalty corners.
Senior keeper Meaghan Dwyer made two saves between the pipes for the Owls, while junior netminder Kaylyn Allahyarian turned aside five shots for the Bears.
Both teams are back in action on Tuesday evening
with non-conference games. The Bears travel to Salve Regina University
for a seven o'clock game with the Seahawks, while the Owls entertain the
Spartans of Castleton University at 6:30.
No comments:
Post a Comment