The 17th ranked Blue Jays women’s soccer team won their third game in a row and their ninth overall this season, beating Ursinus 6-0 on the wings of sophomore Hannah Kronick’s fourth hat trick of the season. “We played a really good game, even though the team wasn’t the strongest opponent we’ll face this year,” Kronick said, “I think we all really stepped up and played at our level of play and it ended up fueling our success.” Her unprecedented number of hat tricks broke the previous record for a single season and in a career, previously set 14 years ago by Sarah Parola. All six of the Jays’ goals were scored in the first half.
Kronick moved up to fourth place all time in Hopkins women’s soccer history in all-time points scored (79) and goals (33) after notching three goals and one assist in the shutout. Her spectacular play did not go unnoticed, as she was named the Centennial Conference Offensive Player of the Week for the second time this season and for the fifth time overall in her collegiate career. Kronick widened her already impressive lead in the Centennial Conference in both goals and points, with margins of 14 and 31 in both categories, respectively. Kronick is averaging an astounding 2.4 points per game.
Hopkins never truly gave the Bears much of a chance, as from the opening whistle they maintained possession for the vast majority of the time. Their diligence paid off in the 17th minute when sophomore Sydney Teng broke free down the left sideline, then booted it cross-field to junior Kelly Baker, who struck it past keeper Kara DiJoseph for the first score of the game.
Baker then tallied an assist of her own just nine minutes later, kicking the ball from the right flank to a streaking Kronick, who knocked it in to double the Jays’ lead. Hopkins didn’t let up as just two minutes later Kronick would again score on a pass from Baker in what was a nearly exact copy of the previous play.
Junior Christina Convey got in on the scoring action in the 37th minute when Kronick dished her the ball and in one motion she put it past DiJoseph from 20 yards out into the lower left corner to break the game open at 4-0.
Just four minutes later, Kronick would receive a well-placed free kick from senior defender Taylor Schulte to cap off her first-half hat trick, chipping the ball into the upper right corner of the net to extend the lead to five goals.
Freshman Issy Berkey finished the scorefest with a header just before the whistle for halftime.
Hopkins’ already stellar D maintained its strong play in the second half, keeping the Bears from holding the ball for any significant amount of time. The Jays’ dominance in the possession category could be illustrated by the fact that they outshot the Bears 22-2, with junior goalie Kelly Leddy making both saves needed in 78 minutes of play to blank Ursinus in what was Hopkins’ seventh shutout of the season. Hopkins also took more corner kicks than Ursinus (5 to 1).
After taking down the Bears 5-0, the Blue Jays were flying high entering their Wednesday night matchup against 21st ranked TCNJ. The win streak looked to be in safe hands as Hopkins took an early 1-0 lead off of a goal from junior Kelly Baker.
However, the Lions responded in phenomenal fashion with five unanswered goals to complete the upset over Hopkins, 5-1.
The Blue Jays were plagued by sloppy play and poor possession as TCNJ controlled the pace of the game, as evidenced by their 13-8 lead in shots.
The Lady Jays will look to bounce back from their defeat against Haverford this weekend.
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