Backed by goals from senior Hannah Racis, junior Gabrielle Vagnozzi and sophomore Morgan Bower, the Saint Joseph's women's soccer team downed George Washington, 3-1, on Thursday night at Sweeney Field.
In a match in where the teams came in tied for fifth in the Atlantic 10 with 12 points each, the Hawks scored the first three goals and then withstood a late goal by the Colonials, and a lightning delay that ended the match early, to improve to 10-4-2 on the season and 5-2-0 in conference play.
Racis opened the scoring at 27:24 as she headed in a corner kick from Vagnozzi to give SJU a 1-0 edge.
Bower extended the lead to 2-0 at 34:44 as she took a lead pass from rookie Aleksa Peev and snuck a shot past the charging Colonial golakeeper and inside the left post.
Taking a lead into the second half, the Hawks pushed their lead to 3-0 as the rain began to fall. Off a drop pass from Dakota Mills, Vagnozzi lifted a shot from the top of the box that soared into the upper right corner of the net at 54:55.
The Colonials (8-6-1, 4-3-0 A-10) got on the board in the 76th minute on a goal by Alex Filipkowski, but the Hawks' defense and senior goalkeeper Grace Bendon stood tall from there to preserve the win. Bendon made three saves on the night to pick up her 10th win on the season.
The Hawks are back in action on Sunday when they head to Rhode Island for a 1 p.m. match.
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