Knouse Tallies First Career Hat Trick in 8-1 Rout of UC Davis
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SPRING CITY, Pa. – Led by junior Britt Knouse’s first career hat trick, the Virginia field hockey team (6-7) defeated UC Davis 8-1 Thursday in Spring City, Pa. The Cavaliers’ eight goals marked a season high.
Sophomore Elly Buckley registered two goals in the winning effort while classmates Hadley Bell and Carissa Vittese and senior Alex Jahnle also scored.
UVa outshot the Aggies 21-11 for the game and finished with nine penalty corners while UC Davis (2-7) took seven.
It took just 1:15 for the Cavaliers to notch their first goal when Buckley converted on a Bell pass in the circle and shot from the left side past UC Davis keeper Lauren Sawvelle. Virginia then took a 2-0 lead in the fifth minute when Bell scored on a nice ball from Knouse across the center.
The Aggies put in their lone goal 40 seconds later on a broken penalty corner. Lydia Brambila rebounded her own saved shot and scored to cut the UVa lead to 2-1.
Knouse registered her first goal of the game in the 16th minute when she deflected a Buckley shot. Vittese then made it 4-1 when she converted a penalty stroke in the 20th minute. Just before the half, Buckley notched her second goal on an assist from senior Rachel Jennings to lead at the break 5-1.
Knouse came out in the second half and scored back-to-back goals within 10 minutes of each other. The first came in the 38th minute on another assist from Jennings. Then in the 48th minute, freshman Rachel Sumfest assisted on Knouse’s third score of the game.
Jahnle rounded out the Virginia scoring with a goal 23 seconds later.
All three Cavalier goalkeepers saw action vs. the Aggies. Freshman Jenny Johnstone played the entire first half and finished with four saves. Senior Adrienne Ostroff (32 minutes) and redshirt sophomore Amanda Crider (three) combined for the second half shutout.
Sawvelle finished with three saves in the first half for UC Davis. Conley Craven came on to play the second half and tallied one save.
Virginia continues its three-game road trip vs. Princeton at 7 p.m. Friday in Princeton, N.J.