Owls draw top seed in ECAC New England women's basketball tournament

KEENE, N.H., 3/1/10 - Keene State women's basketball coach Keith Boucher had a good feeling that his team would draw the top seed in the ECAC Division III New England tournament.

Sitting down at the computer with his wife Teri and assistant Ryan Margaitis on Sunday, Boucher ranked the possible contenders for the top spot. "There was only one team that had a higher strength of schedule than us, and that was Brandeis. And they decided not to be in the tournament this year," said Boucher. "No other school compared to us."

Boucher's homework proved correct on Monday when the ECAC field was announced. The top-seeded Owls (17-8) will host eighth-seed Suffolk University of Boston (14-12) in an opening-round game on Wednesday (7 p.m.) at Spaulding Gym. Other first-round games have second-seed Regis College (19-9) hosting seventh-seed Worcester State (15-13), third-seed Endicott College (19-7) entertaining sixth-seed Plymouth State (15-10), and fourth-seed WPI (19-9) at home taking on fifth-seed Norwich University (20-7).

With a win on Wednesday, KSC will host the two semifinals and final championship this weekend. The semifinal games will be played on Saturday at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., and the championship is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Boucher is pleased his five seniors (Kristin Degou, Nicole Simmler, Jen Cleaveland, Alyssa Sapp, and Celeste Veillieux) will have an opportunity to complete their careers on their home court. "That means more to me than anything," said Boucher. "It's not going to be easy, but we have an opportunity to end our season at home, and how many schools get to do that?"

Keene State, which saw its comeback bid against Western Conn. come up short in the semifinals of the Little East tournament with a 63-56 loss, will be facing Suffolk for just the second time. The Owls defeated the Rams 75-59 in the finals of the 1999 KSC Tip-off Tournament. Suffolk, which will be playing in the ECAC tournament for the third time in the past four years, lost a heartbreaker to Albertus Magnus 82-81 in the quarterfinals of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Tournament.

Boucher and the Owls are familiar with several teams in the field. Earlier this season, KSC defeated Regis (73-64) and Worcester State (64-59). They split their two games against rival Plymouth State, losing on the road (62-59) and winning at home (66-48). Keene State played in the WPI tournament back in 2007 and got ready for the 2009 campaign with a scrimmage game against Norwich.

Keene State is making its fifth trip to the ECAC tournament. Last year, the Owls lost to top-seed Nichols College in the semifinals 58-53. In 2006, KSC dropped a first-round game to Emmanuel (73-64). They advanced to the semifinals round of the 2002 tournament before losing to Plymouth State (73-57). The following year, they dropped a quarterfinal game to Colby-Sawyer (52-48).

The Owls won the ECAC Championship as a Division II member in 1988 and 1989, and also reached the championship game in 1993.