South Hadley, Mass. - September 25, 2019 - Behind a career-best three goals from senior forward Minerva Veeser-Bobea (Arlington, Mass.), the Mount Holyoke College soccer team earned a hard-fought 3-0 win over Mitchell College in non-conference play at the MHC Soccer Field on Wednesday evening.

Veeser-Bobea's performance marked the first time since September 1, 2016 that a Mount Holyoke College student-athlete has recorded three goals in a single game. The last two student-athletes to do so were current seniors McKenna Lamb (Redlands, Calif.) and Hannah Finn-Erb (Northampton, Mass.), who both had three-goal performances in a 7-0 season-opening win over Southern Vermont.

With the win, the Lyons are now 2-5-1 on the year, while the Mariners fall to 2-5 overall. Mount Holyoke College held a 25-7 shot advantage over 90 minutes of play, as Mitchell took six corner kicks compared to the Lyons' five.

In net for Mount Holyoke College, Brianna Thompson (El Cajon, Calif.) picked up the shutout victory with three saves, while her counterpart, Yordi Slover (Westhampton, N.Y.) notched 11 stops in the setback.

Just over 15 minutes into the match, Mount Holyoke College got on the board as Veeser-Bobea caused a turnover at midfield, before dishing a pass to Hannah Finn-Erb (Northampton, Mass.) in the middle. After collecting the pass, Finn-Erb then sent Veeser-Bobea in behind the Mitchell back line and the senior was able to find the back of the net to give the Lyons a 1-0 with 29:45 to play in the first half.

The Lyons continued to pour on the pressure as they had four shots, including a pair from Paige Osborne (Philadelphia, Pa.) in a span of 9:26 before picking up four more shots in the final 2:43, two of which were turned away by Slover.

Veeser-Bobea was at it again midway through the second half as the Mount Holyoke College offense continued to pressure the Mariners' back line from the outside. Osborne beat her defender down the right flank before sending a cross to the middle of the field that went right to the foot of Finn-Erb. Much like she did in the first half, Finn-Erb slid a pass to Veeser-Bobea who made no mistake and netted her second goal of the contest into the top left corner of the net, making it 2-0, Lyons, with 23:25 to play in the contest. 

With 13:53 on the clock, Mount Holyoke College looked to make it a three-goal lead when Cora Melcher (Portland, Maine) sent in a corner kick that found its way back to the senior. She then took a step and drilled a shot off the crossbar and the Mariners' defense was able to clear the ball to keep the deficit at two.

With less that six minutes to play, Veeser-Bobea came back into the contest and took a long through ball from Melcher, before firing a shot into the top left corner of the net to complete the hat trick and seal the 3-0 win for the Lyons. 

Up next, Mount Holyoke College will travel to Wellesley on Saturday, September 28 for a 1 p.m. contest with Wellesley College in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) play.

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