Former Owl Carrie Moura returns to Keene State

            KEENE, N.H.  10/16/11 – It’s been over 10 years since Carrie Moura stepped foot on the Owl Athletic Turf.  The 1998 Keene State grad and former Owl field hockey and women’s lacrosse player and coach returned to the Complex on Sunday as the head coach of the No. 14 ranked Christopher Newport (Va.) University field hockey team.

            “Although the rotary threw me off, it was very nostalgic seeing Mount Monadnock and pulling into the Complex, said Moura, a Litchfield, Conn, native who has led the Captains to five NCAA tournament appearances in her eight seasons at CNU.

            “Seeing Carrie brings back a lot of nice memories,” said KSC Coach Amy Watson.  “We had some good times and it’s nice to be reminded of certain special moments that I might have forgotten over the years.  It’s like opening up the scrapbook to the past.”

            Moura said it was nice to see a different turf field at the facility.  “It’s nice that there’s not sand on the turf anymore,” said a smiling Moura.  “We used to call it the turf monster.  I think I still have scares from the old turf.”

            Asked about special Keene State memories, Mora recalled an ECAC first-round upset win against Amherst College her senior season in 1997 - the Owls first post-season berth in eight years.  Keene State advanced to the finals that year, falling to Middlebury 1-0.  “We went up for the championship and we couldn’t play,” Moura recalls.  “We went up the next day and the ground was literally frozen solid.” 

            Moura was also a member of Keene State’s first varsity women’s lacrosse team in 1998.  “I don’t miss the cold weather and the snow,” she said.  “We don’t have five foot snow banks around our field in Virginia.”

            Moura also tells her players what it was like when she attended Keene State College.  “I tell them the world was very different before Facebook and cell phones,” she said.  “No one knew where everyone was and it was OK.”