Meneide Tallies First Hat Trick Since 2009 as Lady Statesmen Snap Losing Streak

William Penn Women’s Athletics

Oskaloosa–The William Penn women’s soccer team snapped a six-game losing streak in fashion as it shut out Iowa Wesleyan 4-0 in non-conference action Wednesday.

Emmanuella Meneide (Jr., Turks and Caicos, University of the Southwest) highlighted the cause by posting her first career hat trick and the first hat trick for the program in three years. Brittany Hajicek last accomplished the feat on September 13, 2009 in an 8-1 win over Knox.

The Lady Statesmen took quite a while to get on the board with Meneide finally breaking the scoreless tie at the 33:27 mark. Tiger goalkeeper Kaytlyn Owens made a sloppy pass out of the box directly to the junior, who took advantage of the easy one-on-one opportunity.

Just more than two minutes later, Meneide finished off a pass from Silvia Munoz (Fr., Paramount, Calif., Elementary Education) to make it 2-0. Munoz then assisted one more time in the first half (her third of the fall as Kate Thayer (Fr., East Fremantle, Australia, Physical Education) scored her fifth goal of the year at 41:07.

Iowa Wesleyan (3-11) kept the margin at three until the final two minutes when Meneide finished off her performance from a pass by Brittany Grier (Jr., Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo., Secondary Education). It was Grier’s first collegiate assist. Meneide is now tied with Thayer for the team lead in goals. William Penn outshot the Tigers 30-11.

Laura Gentry (Jr., Fruitland, Idaho, Physical Education) recorded six saves for her first win of 2012.

Next: William Penn travels to Dubuque Saturday to face Clarke in Midwest Collegiate Conference action at 2 p.m.