NEW LONDON, N.H. – September 1, 2017 – The Colby-Sawyer College field hockey team was edged by four-time reigning Little East Conference champion Keene State College, 2-1, on a blustery Friday afternoon.

Keene State goes to 1-0 and will play at the University of New England tomorrow at 2 p.m. The Chargers drop to 0-1 and will host Elms on Sunday at 1 p.m.

The Chargers came out aggressive in the opening moments and moved down the field to set up a scoring chance 1:34 into the contest. Junior Jordan Teixeira (Exeter, N.H.) ripped a pass to an open senior Paige Viens (Middlebury, Vt.) who snuck in behind the Owls goalie to finish the one-timer. With the goal, Viens moves into third on the all-time points list with 41, while Teixeira jumps to second with 42 points.

The Owls would knot the score at 1-1 in the 11th minute. Sophomore Ally McCall (Watertown, Mass.) was on the right side of the cage when she found freshman teammate Nina Bruno (Agawam, Mass.) in front of the goalie. Bruno used a spin move to set up a reverse shot that went by the Colby-Sawyer keeper.

Late in the first half, the Chargers were applying pressure in front of the cage and took a pair of shots before play was halted to award Colby-Sawyer a penalty stroke. Sophomore Kailyn Lapham (Medway, Mass.) fired a shot to the lower left corner of the cage, but was denied by a sprawling Jordan LaRaus (Bedford Hills, N.Y.) who just got her stick on the ball to deflect it off the post and out.

The game went to halftime tied at 1-1. Keene State held a slim edge in shots 8-5.

Bruno found the back of the cage for the second time in the game with the eventual game-winner 7:41 into the second frame. With traffic in front of the scoring area, Bruno corralled the ball and scored to put the Owls in front 2-1.

Lapham kept the game at a one goal deficit for the Chargers when she came up with a great defensive save on a Julia Babbitt (Haddam, Conn.) shot with less than two minutes to play.

Keene State held on for the win and LaRaus finished with four saves. Colby-Sawyer freshman goalie Abby Ladd (Colchester, Vt.) made eight saves in her first collegiate action.  

For the latest on Colby-Sawyer Athletics, follow the Chargers on Facebook (www.facebook.com/CSCathletics), Twitter (www.twitter.com/CSCathletics) and Instagram (www.instagram.com/CSCathletics).