Westfield State Family Weekend Preview

WESTFIELD, Mass. — Westfield State Athletics is set for an action-packed weekend for family weekend at Alumni Field as we see three home games. Men's soccer gets our family weekend triple header started on Friday night at 7 p.m. with field hockey and football to follow on Saturday afternoon.  

MEN'S SOCCER VS MASS MARITIME 

To kick off this family weekend, we start on Friday night as men's soccer takes on inner-conference opponent Massachusetts Maritime Academy. The Owls are looking to extend their winning streak versus the Buccaneers to six in a row.  

Fresh off a MASCAC tournament championship appearance, Westfield is currently 3-3 on the year with this being the first conference matchup of the season. Just a season ago, the Owls finished the regular season with a 5-2 record in MASCAC play.  

Westfield's leading scorer is junior forward Nicholas Parakilas, who is currently tied for first in the MASCAC for goals and points and has a nine-shot lead over the second place holder for shots in the conference.  

Owls' goalkeeper Luke Theroux is the only keeper in the conference with at least four games started and has a 2.00 or less goals against average. Theroux is also tied for fifth in the league for saves this fall with 17. 

The Buccaneers come into Alumni field with a 1-4 record this season, led by leading scorer Brody Calvert, the sophomore forward has three goals this year. 

FIELD HOCKEY VS WORCESTER ST. 

Westfield field hockey starts off our slate on Saturday with their first intra-conference match of the season versus the Lancers of Worcester State at 11 a.m.  

Last season this matchup was between the top two teams in the MASCAC conference. The two teams faced twice last year, splitting their season series against one another as both teams won their home game.  

Kaleigh Murphy, a junior forward, is currently tied for first in the conference with goals scored (6), tied for first in shots on goal (15), and leads the conference in points with ten. This the Owls leading stat leader with teammate Erin Murphy not too far behind. Erin Murphy is the current leader in the conference with assists with three and third place for points with seven. 

Westfield goalkeeper, Emma Gniadek, has been having a great start to the year as well. Gniadek is tied for first in the MASCAC in saves (61), fourth in save percentage (.762), and fourth for goals against average (3.80).  

The Lancer's come into town with an 0-5 record with Kylie Casey and Kate Harrison leading from the scoring front of Worcester state.  

FOOTBALL VS WEST CONN 

The Owls are home for a third week in a row for their second MASCAC matchup of the year for a 2 p.m. kickoff against Western Connecticut State University. Westfield won last week against Bridgewater State 24-17 for the first time in twelve years and is trying to snap the four game win streak of the Wolves over Westfield. More in the preview here :https://www.westfieldstateowls.com/sports/fball/2024-25/releases/20240918m9tjp1  

Video and live stats for all home and road Owls games can be found at WestfieldStateOwls.com 

Written by Hunter Briggs - WSU Sports Information Graduate Assistant