Top-Ranked West Chester Continues To Roll; Defeats Mercyhurst

WEST CHESTER, Pa. – Caitlin Kelly (Coatesville, Pa./Bishop Shanahan) registered a hat trick while both Katie Thompson (Washington, N.J./Warren Hills) and Caitie McNamara (Buderim, Australia) posted a pair of goals to lead No. 1 West Chester to a 10-0 win over visiting Mercyhurst at Vonnie Gros Field Saturday afternoon.
 
West Chester (12-0, 5-0 PSAC) extended its season-opening win streak to 12 games, which is the longest streak to open a season in school history. The Golden Rams will have an opportunity to tie the school record for longest winning streak at any point in a single season on Wednesday when Shippensburg comes calling to Vonnie Gros Field. Mercyhurst fell to 3-9 overall and 1-4 in conference.
 
How it Happened:

• West Chester used another productive second quarter to jump all over its visitors and take a 6-0 lead into the locker room at halftime. Kelly tallied two of her three goals in the game during that decisive second quarter. McNamara and Roncoroni scored on opposite ends of Kelly's markers.
• The Golden Rams added three more in the third quarter to take a comfortable 9-0 advantage into the fourth. McNamara, Thompson and Marre Corver (The Netherlands) each picked up a goal.
• Tara Hausker (Wayne, Pa./Conestoga) scored for the second straight game in the fourth quarter to close out the scoring.

 
Inside the Box Score:

• West Chester held Mercyhurst without a shot in the contest. It marked the third time in the last four games in which the Golden Rams have not allowed their opponent a shot in the game. In fact, over that four-game stretch, only two shots have been directed at the Rams' net.
• Goalkeeper Claire Nielsen (Wescosville, Pa./Emmaus) improved her consecutive scoreless streak to 543 minutes, 46 seconds. She did not have to make a save in 53 minutes of action.
• The shutout was the ninth straight blanking of an opponent on the season. West Chester has not allowed a goal in 575:39, dating back to the first meeting this year with Mercyhurst in Erie, Pa.
• The ninth shutout is the most in a single season since Amy Cohen's squad blanked 11 teams in 2012. Incidentally, the school record for shutouts in a single season is 17 back in 1977.
• The nine shutouts ranks tied for eighth most in a single season in school history.

 
West Chester takes on No. 6 Shippensburg on Wednesday in a showdown of PSAC heavyweights at 4 p.m. at Vonnie Gros Field. The Golden Rams topped the Raiders, 1-0, earlier in the season on the road at the Robb Sports Complex.