After over 90 minutes of blood and sweat, the women’s soccer team was brought to tears when they lost to Western Connecticut with nine seconds left in the first overtime.
The Lady Owls were looking to win the Little East Conference Championship for the third straight year, but some late game heroics by West-Conn.’s Kelsey Chacho downed the Owls as time expired.
Junior Goaltender Danielle Warhall, who won LEC titles with the team in her first two years at Keene State College, said that the loss in the finals was hard to take.
“To lose like that in the finals, it’s upsetting.” Warhall continued. “It sucks [being] on the other end of it.”
Still Warhall and her teammates said they see the 2015 season as a successful one.
Photo Editor / Tim Smith
“I look at it as a very successful season,” Head Coach Denise Lyons said.
Lyons insisted that the loss wasn’t the result of not wanting the win badly enough.
“It wasn’t from lack of effort. I think my team gave me 110 percent,”
“We played really good in the finals…every individual player stepped up and really tried, I think, as hard as they could.” Sophomore Kali Santino said.
According to the Keene Owls website, the Owls shot 12 times with three on goal, with West Conn putting eleven on goal. Despite the difference in attacking statistics, Warhall and her teammates were able to stay in the game until the final moments.
Warhall and her teammates said that they thought not many people expected the fifth seeded Owls to even make it to the finals in the first place.
“It just goes to show that our record isn’t always going to determine our success,” Warhall said.
The Owls picked up the fifth seed in the LEC playoff bracket and finished off the last three games of the season with two ties and a 3-0 loss.
Senior Shannon Summers said that the postseason gave the team a fresh start.
“We kind of had a renewed energy,” Summers said.
Sophomore Katie Silegy said that the Owls set the tempo for the rest of their playoff push after a 1-0 road win against the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth in the first round.
“We were rolling,” Silegy said.
The Owls then went back on the road and took down top-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University 2-1 and advanced to their third straight LEC finals appearance. However, the Owls were unable to come away with the win, and their season came to an end.
The careers of four of the team’s players also came to an end with the loss. Summers said that while she is disappointed with the loss, she has had a lot to be proud of while a member of the Owls.
“I think now it’s more of a reflection of my entire college career. I think at this point, I can’t just focus on that one last game…now I can just look back and look at everything I did accomplish and I can be satisfied with that,” Summer said.
The Owls are now taking a few weeks off to rest their bodies and catch up on school work, but they’ll soon be back on the field preparing for next season. Silegy said the team plans on being in the finals again in 2016.
“We’ll get them next year,” Silegy said.
Jake can be contacted at jbarrett@kscequinox.com
