Contact: Mark Albanese, Director of Sports Communication

TACOMA, Wash. - The 20th-ranked Pacific Lutheran University women's soccer team continued its weekend scoring binge on Sunday afternoon, receiving a hat-trick from Machaela Graddy and overwhelming Lewis & Clark College 6-0 in a Northwest Conference clash at East Field.

The Lutes (12-0-4, 9-0-3 NWC) outscored its two weekend opponents, Lewis & Clark (5-10-1, 4-7-1 NWC) and Linfield College, by a combined 10-0 scoreline, increasing its lead in the NWC standings to three points after second place University of Puget Sound battled to a scoreless stalemate on Sunday against Pacific University.  

"It's the first time we've played Sunday at home in a doubleheader since September," said Head Coach Seth Spidahl. 

"My concern was after having a good performance Saturday can we reproduce that or do you get complacent. We talked about refocusing and we're 0-0 as of today and making the most of it. "

Graddy opened the scoring in the 12th minute with a unassisted score before Hailey Smoot doubled PLU's edge in the 27th minute, scoring off a Lena Moreno corner kick. Liz Griffith tallied the first strike of the second half, finding the back of the net off a cross from Graddy in the 49th minute. Graddy added to her tally with a goal in the 60th minute with Leah Magee assisting before completing the hat-trick four minutes later with a score off a feed from Kristi Kaneta.

Taylor Lunde tallied the sixth and final score in the 80th minute, giving PLU its biggest offensive output since a 7-2 victory over Linfield back on Oct. 24, 2009. The game was additionally the biggest margin of victory for the Lutes since a 7-0 dismantling of Eastern Oregon University during the 2002 campaign.

"The first half was good but we really ramped it up in the second half and took it to them. It's good for me to see the players start to capitalize on all the chances they've been creating." 

Takara Mitsui tallied six saves in 90 minute of work for her 13th clean sheet of 2016 while the Pioneers' Hannah Osmundson and Emily Schmelling combined for seven saves.

"No one knows when you're going to score, it's the hardest thing in the game of soccer but you just have to keep doing process based things, keeping shots and corners up, so that at some point they start to go in and a lot went in this weekend. I'm really proud. Machaela stepped up and had her first career hat-trick so it's great to see those players start to catch form."

Pacific Lutheran continues its homestand next Saturday, hosting Pacific University at 12 p.m.