ROCK HILL, SC – Four Eagles recorded hat tricks Sunday evening as the Winthrop lacrosse team remained unbeaten with a 16-7 victory over St. Francis.

With the victory Winthrop improved to 5-0 on the season and picked up its second win of the day.  St. Francis fell to 1-1 on the year.

Katie Clark, Shannon Gallagher, Abigail Blevins and Kristen Shriver each tallied three goals.  Shriver also added two assists to lead the team.  Hayley Krause led the team with seven draw controls while Clark picked up four ground balls to lead the Eagles.  Alaina Girani had another strong performance in goal, allowing only six goals and making 10 saves.

"We had a very balanced attack today which is going to be key for us this year," head coach John Sung said.  "We were missing a couple kids because of injury but we had people step up and really contribute today."

Alexis Linhardt got the Eagles on the board less than two minutes into the contest but then tired legs may have gotten the best of the Eagles as St. Francis scored the next three to take a 3-1 lead with 20:29 left in the half.  Winthrop didn't stay down long as Abigail Blevins and Kristen Shriver each scored to tie the game at 3-3 with 18:56 on the clock.

The Red Flash regained a one-goal edge with 16:46 remaining but didn't get another tally for the remainder of the half.  Winthrop rattled off five-straight goals to end the half.  Katie Clark scored three of the Eagle goals while Shannon Gallagher and Blevins each added one to send the Eagles into the half up 8-4.

Winthrop started the second half where they left off the first as Danielle Ellis scored with 26:06 left in the contest.  After St. Francis scored less than two minutes later, Winthrop again went on a big run, scoring five unanswered goals.  Shriver and Gallagher each had two in the stretch while Paige Jenkins scored the other.

St. Francis scored its second goal of the half with 8:04 remaining, but the Eagles were able to hit a running clock with goals from Blevins and Alexis Linhardt with 3:08 left.  The Red Flash tallied one more goal with just over a minute left to reach the final score.

The Eagles dominated in shots 34-21 and won both the ground ball and draw control battles 18-15 and 15-10 respectively. 

Winthrop will use this week to prepare for a road trip into Virginia as the Eagles will face VCU on Friday and William & Mary on Saturday.