La Plume, Pa. –King's College scored a pair of first half goals on Wednesday afternoon and held off a comeback bid by host Keystone College to claim a 2-1 victory in a non-conference field hockey game in La Plume.  The Monarchs improve to 4-5 on the season with the win while the Giants slip to 3-5 heading into Saturday's Colonial States Athletic Conference opener at Neumann University.     
 
King's took a 1-0 lead just 1:10 into Wednesday's contest when Kelley O'Keefe tapped a loose ball into the Keystone cage from close range. 
 
The Monarchs doubled their lead in the 23^rd minute of play when Brianna DiMaggio found the back of the cage by punching home a rebound after Kelsey Gabriele's shot hit the post.
 
King's held the 2-0 advantage at halftime while outshooting the Giants 11-1 over the opening 35 minutes of play.
 
After being outplayed for the majority of the first half, Keystone stepped up the offensive pressure in the second stanza and got on the board with 19 and a half minutes remaining when Kayla Bain (Lancaster, Pa./J.P. McCaskey) blasted home a shot from the top of the circle just inside the far post to cut the Giants' deficit to 2-1.  The junior's tally was her second of the season.
 
Keystone continued to create chances and nearly had an equalizer with five minutes left in regulation, but King's goalkeeper Kayla Nailor made a fine stop on Amy Llewellyn (Plains, Pa./Coughlin)'s fast break opportunity.
 
Still trailing by a goal, the Giants generated a penalty corner in the closing seconds of the contest and set up a good chance for Shelby Croasdale (Nicholson, Pa./Lackawanna Trail), whose bid to send the game to overtime went inches wide of the left post as time expired to allow the Monarchs to escape with the victory.
 
Nailor picked up the win in goal with a five-save performance for King's, who held an 18-7 advantage in shots for the game and placed 11 shots on goal to six for the Giants.  The Monarchs also generated nine penalty corner chances to five for the hosts.
 
Emily Hawkins (Glenside, Pa./Cheltenham) started in Keystone's cage and made four saves over the first 23 minutes of action before being replaced by Megan Novak (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./Coughlin), who turned aside five shots over the final 47 minutes of the contest.
 
Keystone will open the CSAC portion of its schedule on Saturday with a game at Neumann starting at 11:00 a.m. in Aston, Pennsylvania.