Hamilton, N.Y. (Sept. 12, 2008) – The Saint Francis women's soccer team beat Colgate 4-3 in overtime on a Rachael Seibert (Murrysville, Pa/Franklin Regional) (Murrysville, Pa./Franklin Regional) hat trick on Friday in at Van Doren Field in Hamilton, N.Y. This is the fourth time the squad has played overtime this season, which is already one more than they played last season.
"We just can't get rid of that overtime," said head coach Brenda van Stralen. "It was an outstanding performance for our players. We needed to take Colgate and we did."
The Red Flash will travel to Buffalo, N.Y. for a match up with Canisius at 1 PM on Sunday.
Seibert, a junior forward, is the second Red Flash player this season to have a hat trick. Freshman midfielder Traci Flick (Montoursville, Pa./Montoursville) (Montoursville, Pa./Montoursville) scored three goals in a game at Holy Cross on August 29.
Colgate got on the board first, on a goal by Danielle Wessler 6:58 into the first half. Wessler scored again late in the second half to send the game into overtime. The Raiders also got a tally from Jillian Arnault.
Seibert scored her first goal of the night 18:11 into the first half off a feed from Alanna Vespa (Ancaster, Ontario/Saint Mary’s Catholic) (Ancaster, Ontario/Saint Mary's Catholic). Seibert scored again 20 minutes in the second half. Her second goal was assisted by Katie Dougherty (Downington, Pa./Bishop Shanahan) (Downington, Pa./Bishop Shanahan).
Sophomore forward Chelsea Traurig (McMurray, Pa./Peters Township) scored an unassisted goal to tie the game 2-2 with five minutes to go in the first half. Traurig was injured in the first ten minutes of the game, but later returned.
Seibert than became the first Red Flash player this season to find the net two minutes into overtime from seven yards out. Senior captain Marina Accordo (Rochester, N.Y./Hilton) (Rochester, N.Y./Hilton) had the helper on Seibert's overtime goal. Seibert is now tied with Flick for goals most goals this season with 4.
The Raiders outshot the Flash 17-6. They also had eight corner kicks to the Red Flash's three.
"It was a tough game," said van Stralen. "Our players worked hard, and our determination got us the 'W.' We have Canisius on Sunday, and we just need to keep going."
