The Keene State field hockey team picked up right where they left off last year, cruising through their first three games of the season.
Any questions surrounding the team’s ability to recover from a crushing 1-0 loss in last years Little East Conference Championship have been answered with convincing victories that have the Lady Owls out-scoring opponents 15 to 1 early on in the year.
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The KSC Field Hockey team is off to an impressive start, winning their first three games comfortably.
The team is already outpacing last year’s squad, who started slow before winning 10 of their last 13 to finish the regular season.
But head coach Amy Watson is tempering enthusiasm so early in the year.
“We’ve only had three games so we haven’t been completely challenged yet,” Watson warned.
“We’ve been doing okay, but our defense hasn’t been tested the way we need them to be.”
After going 15-9 last season including an impressive 9-2 conference record, the team lost to top-ranked U-Mass Dartmouth in the LEC championship game, only managing to get three shots on goal.
In stark contrast to that poor performance, the team’s offense has had no such problems so far, outscoring New England College 5-0 in a 29-shot barrage just last weekend.
Leading the charge so far for the Lady Owls is sophomore forward Lyndsie Rabenius, who already has four goals on the year.
Such success on offense was hardly a guarantee after the team lost its leading scorer to graduation last year, Kalin Billert.
Billert also led the team in assists, meaning she was leaving a massive hole to fill in terms of playmaking opportunities.
But rather than one person filling the void, it has been a team-effort that has the offense looking better than it did at times last year, something un-thinkable as recently as a month ago.
Watson still sees room for improvement, however.
“Offensively we need to work on playing with each other and developing relationships and creating more team chemistry on the field,” Watson said.
Before we give all the credit to the players, it should be noted that Watson, the 24-year veteran coach, likely has as much to do with the seamless transition as anyone.
Watson has turned the team into a consistent contender in the LEC, winning seven league titles since KSC joined the LEC in 1998 (including five in a row from 2004-2008).
Watson is joined again by goalies coach Carole Kinsella, who returns for her 13th year with the team.
Kinsella has coached some of the best goalies to play at Keene State and should be busy with four goalies on this season’s roster to work with.
Beyond her work with goalies, Kinsella also plays invaluable roles as both the main recruiter and the one who handles the administrative duties for the team
So far, Watson and Kinsella have the team looking as good as any team they’ve coached in their long tenures at KSC.
But it’s important to note that until the Lady Owls play LEC competition it will be hard to judge their chances at the league crown.
The only thing the Lady Owls perhaps have to worry about is peaking too early: they don’t get another crack at division rival U-Mass Dartmouth until their last game of the season on November 2nd.
Zach Winn can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com