By: Keene State College Athletics

WAYNESBURG, Pa. – The Keene State College women's soccer team traveled down to Waynesburg University on Saturday to take on the Yellow Jackets in the ECAC championship and despite the Owls pressure on the attack throughout the contest, one shot found the back of the net and it favored WU as the Owls were defeated, 1-0.
 
Records

• Keene State: 10-6-6 (4-0-4 LEC)
• New Jersey City: 17-3-2 (8-1-2 PAC)

How it Happened


The Yellow Jackets were on the attack often in the opening half of the first 45 minutes of action, but it did not amount to anything as the Owls held WU off. Waynesburg had three corner kicks over the first 26 minutes action, but it only resulted in one shot that the Owls' goalkeeper, Riley Andriski, made in goal as the other three shots missed the target. As the opening half went on, the Owls began to find their groove and start to make a push of their own as Keely Giordano recorded the first shot on goal for KSC in the 30th minute, but the Yellow Jackets' goalkeeper, Lex Greenlief made the save. Two minutes later, Andriski made her second save of the day, but the Owls continued to apply the pressure on the other side of the field over the next seven minutes with four more shots, but Greenlief saved the two that were on target, coming from Giuliana Stolfi and Elizabeth Tschudin. Andriski made one more save for the Owls in the 41st minute, leading to the Owls upping the pressure more on the attack in the final four minutes of the opening half, but Greenlief made a pair of saves over 20 seconds with under a minute remaining to send the contest into the half tied scoreless.
 
The Owls continued to apply their pressure from the end of the first half at the beginning of the second half, as Greenlief was forced to make another save but it was the Yellow Jackets on the other side of the field that found the back of the net as Hailey Gilchrest sent a shot through Andriskis' legs to take the lead in the 55th minute. WU tried to tack on another goal over the next five minutes on the attack, but both their corner kicks resulted in shots missing the target. Over the next 20 minutes the Owls tried to draw even with five more shots on goal, but Greenlief held strong and saved every shot to preserve the lead for the Yellow Jackets. Andriski made one more save for the Owls in the 82nd minute, and it looked like KSC was going to pull even with a shot from Mikayla Ryan, but her shot hit off the post in the 83rd minute and stayed out of the net. KSC continued to try to mount a comeback, but Greenlief made three more saves and the final shot from the Owls went just wide as the Yellow Jackets held on for their first ECAC championship in program history.
 
"We played a great first half. Gave up an early goal in the second but overall played really good soccer," said Owls' head coach Sarah Testo. "We outshot them and dominated play we just couldn't put one in."
 
Picked to finish last in the Little East Conference, the Owls finished the regular season undefeated in second, going 4-0-4 in conference play and Testo made sure to recognize that despite it was not the outcome they wanted, she was still proud of the team, "Overall, they play hard and never gave up all season. I'm so proud of them for how they improved as a team as the season went on. This post season experience was so great for our returners and our seniors should be proud of this season to cap off their careers."
 
Inside the Box

• Andriski made four saves in the contest as she finishes her KSC career with the seventh-most saves in a career, with 266 saves over her four years as an Owl.
• The Owls' back line continued to hold strong, just as they have done all season, with Stolfi, Elise Saab, and Eleanor Leland all playing the full 90 minutes and holding the Yellow Jackets to just 10 shots in the contest, after averaging over 22 shots per game all season prior to the contest.
• KSC had the advantage on shots and shots on goal, 25-10, and 14-5, while WU had a 6-5 corner kick advantage.
• Greenlief finished the contest with 14 saves, the second-most by an opposing goalkeeper in a game against the Owls this season.

Up Next


The Owls return all but two of their starters next season as the Owls will look to build upon the progress they have made during the 2025 season to take the next step even further in the 2026 season.