KEENE, N.H. - Keene State College will be the place to be for Little East Conference tournament action this week. Owl field hockey, women's soccer, and volleyball teams will host games, and the KSC men's soccer team will hit the road for semifinal contest.

The top-seed Owl field hockey team (15-5, 10-1 LEC) will get the ball rolling with a quarterfinal game against eighth-seed Worcester State (9-10, 4-7) on Tuesday (6 p.m.). Later in the day, the third-seed Keene State women's soccer team (11-7-1, 5-2 LEC) will takes on sixth-seed Southern Maine (7-10, 3-4 LEC) in a first-round game at 6:30 p.m.

KSC field hockey coach Amy Watson said the Lancers are a tough first-round draw for the Owls. "Worcester State and the other bottom teams in the tournament are very deceiving," she said. "We had a difficult time putting Worcester way down there earlier in the season. They also play on a similar surface, so they won't have to make any adjustments."

KSC scored three unanswered second half goals to defeat Worcester State 3-1 back on Oct. 12.

On the positive side, KSC enters the tournament riding a six-game winning streak. An offensive juggernaut, the Owls have outscored their opponents 26-2 in that span. The Lancers earned the final playoff spot in the LEC playoffs by virtue of their, 4-0 win over Eastern Connecticut State on Saturday.

The defending champion Owls will be shooting for their sixth LEC tournament championship. KSC captured the title in 1998, 1999, 2004-06. In 2001, WSC upset KSC (1-0) in the quarterfinals. The Owls edged the Lancers (1-0, OT) in last year's semifinal round.

A win by KSC will set up a semifinal game between either number 4 Bridgewater State or number 5 Framingham State on Thursday (6p.m.) at the Owl Athletic Complex.

The Keene State women's soccer team is entering the tournament on a high after posting their biggest win of the season, a 3-2 upset victory over LEC front-runner and number-16-ranked Western Connecticut on Saturday.

"The timing is great; Saturday's win gave us a lot of confidence," said KSC Coach Denise Lyons. "Hopefully, it will carry over to the tournament."

Keene State, which has advance to the LEC finals the past eight years, claimed titles in 2002 and 2004. The Owls easily dispatched the Huskies 7-2 when they met earlier in the season.

The Huskies earned a spot in the tournament with Saturday's 1-0 win over Rhode Island. College. KSC defeated USM 3-2 (OT) in the semifinal round of the 2004 tournament.

The winner of Tuesday's game travels to number 2 Eastern Connecticut on Thursday.

The top-seed Keene State women's volleyball team (24-10, 6-0 LEC) will host both semifinal and final rounds of the LEC tournament at Spaulding Gym. The Owls, who received a first-round bye, will face the winner of the match between number 4 Rhode Island College (15-16, 2-4 LEC) and number 5 Eastern Connecticut (8-26, 2-4 LEC) in the semifinal round on Friday (4 p.m.). The championships are scheduled for Saturday at noon.

"This is another milestone for the program," said KSC Coach Bob Weiner. "Being the top seed allows us the luxury of sleeping in our own beds and controlling our destiny."

Weiner hopes their destiny includes a first-ever LEC title and NCAA berth. After advancing to the LEC finals in 2005, the Owls lost to Eastern Connecticut (0-3) in the semifinals last fall.

If the Keene State men's soccer team wants to win its sixth LEC tournament, it will have to do it on the road. The first stop is Maine, where the third-seed Owls (10-4-4, 4-2-1 LEC) take on second-seed Southern Maine (10-7-1, 5-2). Wednesday's semifinal game begins at 2:30 p.m.

The Owls are undefeated (8-0-2) in their last 10 games, including wins over nationally ranked teams Middlebury and Williams.

The Owls find themselves in the tournament despite a slow start. "Somehow we got it done, but now it's do or die," said KSC Coach Ron Butcher.

KSC will have plenty of incentive against USM, who fell out of first after losing to Rhode Island College (2-1) on Saturday. Earlier this season, the Huskies scored early and hanged on for a 1-0 win over the Owls.

"It was a microcosm of the entire season," Butcher said. "We got down early and then spent the rest of the game peppering the goal. Our midfield and strikers need to answer the call on Wednesday, or we'll be coming home."

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