The Pacific field hockey team rolled over America East Conference rival UC Davis, 6-1 Sunday afternoon with Kriekie van Wyk recording a hat trick while Savannah Burns scored twice and Gaby de Kockknocked one in.
The win brings Pacific to 6-7 overall and 2-2 in conference play as the loss drops Davis to 1-13 on the season and 0-3 in the conference.
The Tigers put the pressure on early in the first half on their first corner of the game as Emma Leach dished it to Ash Rutherford to setup van Wyk who executed a perfect behind-the-back pass to Burns who ripped a shot but it was blocked by an Aggie defender.
Pacific went up 1-0 in the 22nd minute as Rylee Comeau had a breakway with van Wyk to her right. Comeau lead van Wyk to the ball with a beautiful pass and van Wyk put on the moves and dribbled around the Aggie defenders and blasted a shot past the 'keeper.
Davis knotted up the score shortly after as Nica Taglieri recorded her second goal of the season off a rebound, but the Tigers answered back. de Kock won the battle with a Davis defender and then passed it off to Rutherford who shuffled a beautiful ball to van Wyk who whistled in her second goal of the afternoon.
To start the second half, the Tigers came out of the huddle ready for action as van Wyk raced down the sideline with de Kock at her side. The junior captain showed off her impressive ball handling skills and transferred the ball to de Kock who registered her third goal of the season from right in front of the net to put Pacific up, 3-1 with plenty of time left to play.
The Tigers took a 4-1 advantage after Burns executed a successful penalty stroke after the Aggie goalkeeper interfered with van Wyk making a break to the net.
The Tigers weren't done as they were awarded a penalty corner with nine minutes left to play in the game. de Kock took the corner and pushed the ball to Tayler Silacci who stopped the ball as van Wyk took the shot and netted her third goal against the Aggies. With the score at 5-1, the Tigers took another penalty corner as de Kock inserted the pass to Rutherford who laid down the ball for Burns who ripped it untouched past the 'keeper to notch her second goal of the game.
Marlise van Tonder finished with four saves and moves to a 6-7 record during her debut season.
Pacific outshot Davis 21-8 and held the advantage on penalty corners 11-4.
The trio of goals from van Wyk keep her as the team's leading scorer with 13 and Rutherford's assist puts her at 11 on the season and now leads the Tigers for the 2017-18 campaign.
The Orange and Black finish their home schedule and conference play with a pair of games next weekend facing Stanford on Friday, October 20 at 3 p.m. followed by UC Davis On Sunday, October 22 at 2 p.m. Both games will be streamed live via PacificTigers.com.
Make sure to follow Pacific field hockey on Twitter with the username @PacificTigersFH and on Instagram at pacifictigersfh