They face Keene in title game for fourth time with NCAA invite on line
Chris D'Ambrosio, head coach
The women's soccer team has shut out Keene State College the last two years in order to reach the championship game of the Little East Conference playoffs.
On Saturday, the teams will meet in the LEC playoffs for the eighth time in nine years. This season, it will be for all the marbles as the clubs meet in the championship game for the fourth time. The winner receives an automatic bid into the NCAA Division III tournament.
With an unbeaten 6-0-1 conference record this year, top-seeded Keene (14-5-2) claimed its first conference regular-season championship since 2004, when the top-seeded Owls went on to win their second and last playoff title with a 3-0 home win over second-seeded Eastern. After sharing last year's regular-season title, second-seeded Eastern (11-5-3) followed up with a 5-1-1 mark this season, sharing second place in the final conference regular-season standings with Massachusetts Boston.
Sandwiched around Keene's 2004 finals win over Eastern were Warrior triumphs over the Owls in the 2003 finale at Keene and in the 2005 title tilt at Thomas Nevers Field. Since the second-seeded Warriors downed Keene on penalty kicks in 2003, the top seed has captured each of the last five championships.
Either Eastern or Keene or both have appeared in all ten previous championship games, with each winning twice. The Warriors have finished second three times in the playoffs and the Owls have lost in the final game six times. In its most recent finals showing in 2006, Keene dropped a 4-2 decision to host Western Connecticut - the first of three straight titles for the Colonials.
The championship game between the two teams is the fourth, but the first since the teams met in those three consecutive seasons between 2003 and 2005. The Warriors have lost 2-1 decisions to Western Connecticut in each of the last two finals.
In Thursday's semifinals at home, Eastern swamped third-seeded UMass Boston, 4-0, and Keene ended the three-year reign of fourth-seeded Western, 2-0. Both of Saturday's finalists drew first-round byes.
Since losing at Keene, 2-1 in overtime Sept. 26, Eastern has posted a 7-2-2 record. The Warriors are 3-4-1 on their opponent's field this year. Ranked in a tie for tenth in New England, Keene is 10-2-3 in its last 15 and is 8-2-1 at home this season. The Owls have yet to give up more than one goal in a match this season. Eastern leads the LEC in least goals allowed this year (17) and in goals-against average (0.85), but is followed closely by Keene.
Keene junior Katie Bradford and Eastern senior Sarah Swann (Oxford) rank 2-3 in the conference in scoring and Eastern freshman Kelly Wallace (South Windsor) tops all conference players with ten assists.
In addition to Swann, Eastern seniors who will be involved in the final conference contests of their careers are goalkeeper Kim Church (Farmington), defender Christine Lemieux (South Windsor) and forward/midfielder Taylor MacDonald (Oak Bluffs, MA).
For a live video feed and live stats of the match, click on the Tournament Central link on the Little East Conference website.
