LOCK HAVEN, Pa. – Graduate student Ava Smith tied one single-game record and broke another as the 19^th-ranked Saint Joseph's field hockey team smashed Lock Haven, 9-0, at Charlotte E. Smith Field on Friday evening.  Smith scored four goals, tying a program record, and added an assist for nine points, setting a new high mark.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
• Saint Joseph's (7-4 overall, 2-0 Atlantic 10) wasted no time as Smith fed Alison Buffington for the game's first goal after just 109 seconds.  Smith would get her first of the day eight minutes later to give the Hawks a 2-0 lead.
 
• Lock Haven (0-10 overall, 0-3 Atlantic 10) recorded a pair of shots late in the first quarter, but Smith tallied twice in the second quarter to double the SJU lead.  Erika Culp recorded an assist three minutes into the frame, while it was Brooke James with the helper less than 20 seconds later to make it 4-0 heading into halftime.
 
• Cat Arentz tallied her first goal as a Hawk shortly after the break; six minutes later, Lily DeWan tallied her first of two on the day to make it 6-0.  Culp then got on the board for herself with six seconds to go in the third to make it a seven-goal lead.
 
• Smith matched the goals record and broke the points record on another assist from Culp early in the fourth before DeWan closed out the scoring in the final five minutes.
 
BEHIND THE BOX SCORE
• Paige Kieft and Marith Bijkerk combined to post a shutout on the day; Bijkerk tallied a save while Kieft was not called upon during the first half.  Kelsey Felix made 14 stops for Lock Haven.
 
• The Hawks outshot the Bald Eagles 38-4 and held a 16-4 edge in penalty corners.
 
• Over the past two seasons, the Hawks have outscored the Bald Eagles 22-1; last year's game saw the Hawks set multiple records in a 13-1 win on October 4.
 
• Smith tied the program's single-game goals mark that was previously set four times; Liz Burns tallied four in 1990, Katelyn O'Brien achieved the feat in 2004, Nicole McCreight bagged four in 2010, and Manu Ghigliotti tied the mark once again in 2023.  Smith is the first to score four times in a road game; McCreight's four-goal day occurred in a neutral site game.
 
• The nine points broke the previous school record of eight, which had been achieved five times.  All four players with four goals in one game had tallied eight points, while Lily Santi totaled three goals and two assists against Lock Haven at Ellen Ryan Field just 364 days ago.
 
UP NEXT
The Hawks will host VCU on Friday, October 10.