Anderson leads way with four goals as w. hockey crushes Union on road

Aren't hat tricks in hockey supposed to be rare?

Apparently, but not for senior forward Gretchen Anderson of the women's hockey team. She accomplished this feat for the third time this season in the team's first of two weekend road games against Union, both of which were easy victories for the Tigers.

Princeton (14-6-0 overall, 7-4-0 Eastern College Athletic Conference) went into this weekend's games looking for a sweep against a struggling Union (3-22-1, 0-10-0) team, and they got it.

"This is Union's first year in Division I," Anderson said, "so this is definitely a transition phase for them."

The final scores were representative of that, as the Tigers took both games, the first by a score of 5-0, the second 10-1.

The 10 goals scored in the second game were the most goals scored by the women's hockey team in a single game since 1996, when they put up 11 against St. Lawrence.

Many Tigers got into the scoring act — not much of a surprise with 15 goals. Anderson, whose hat trick came on Saturday, started the game on Sunday with her 24th goal of the season. The goal came at the 11 minutes and 49 second mark of the first and opened the flood gates for the Tigers' offense. The team scored three more goals in the first, including two in a span of 25 seconds.

The first of the three was scored by freshman forward Liz Keady on a pass from Anderson. Freshman forward Laura Watt made the score 3-0 as she put in her sixth goal of the season off a feed from sophomore forward Sarah Greer. The final goal of the first stanza came off the stick of sophomore forward Heather Jackson.

Princeton was far from finished however, actually managing to take their offense to an even higher level in the second, scoring an incredible six goals. All six came after Union opened up the period with a goal of their own to make the score 4-1.

Any hopes they had for a comeback were quckly extinguished, however, as only a minute later, Watt put in her second of the game. Sophomore forward Tarah Clark then found the back of the net twice in the next few minutes, scoring her first two goals of the season. Clark, sophomore Sarah Butsch, and freshman forward Kim Pearce, all added goals in the second to complete the scoring for Princeton.

Before the offensive onslaught on Sunday, Princeton played a relatively more competitive game against the Dutchwomen the night before, which they only won 5-0.

Anderson, the team captain, put on a show with three goals for her third hat trick of the season.

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It was junior forward Becky Stewart though, not Anderson, who started off the scoring. She put in her fourth goal of the season at the 2:19 mark in the first. Only 27 seconds later, Anderson connected on her first goal of the game to bring the score to 2-0. A Watt goal pushed the score to 3-0.

Sophomore goalie Roxanna Gaudiel earned the shutout in the 5-0 victory as she pushed her record to a perfect 4-0-0 on the season. Senior goalie Megan van Beusekom got the victory in Sunday's game. Her record now stands at 10-6-0.

Beginning this weekend, the Tigers have seven straight home contests.