Brandolini (left) got the scoring under way in the 15th minute when she beat several Redwomen defenders and found the back of the net for an early 1-0 lead with her seventh goal of the season.

In the 34th minute, Brandolini took a corner kick from senior defender Stacy Robey and dribbled through the defense once again before slipping a pass to freshman forward Jessica Estep. Estep volleyed the pass into the net for a 2-0 lead as she notched her team-leading 10th goal of the season.

With 1:13 left in the half, Brandolini beat several defenders again and increased the lead to 3-0 with her second goal of the match and her eighth of the season.

The Lady Cougars (9-3-1, 2-1-0 AMC South) added another goal before the half as junior forward Beth Watkins (below right) took a cross from Brandolini and scored the first goal of her career for a 4-0 halftime lead.

Nearly eight minutes into the second half, Estep notched her second goal of the match and her 11th of the season off a pass from junior midfielder Page Miller to extend the lead to 5-0.

Three minutes later, sophomore midfielder Erin Miller took a pass from Brandolini and ripped a shot off the crossbar and into the net to make it 6-0 as she scored her fourth goal of the year.

In the 79th minute, junior midfielder Raquel Crocker (below left) took a pass from Brandolini and scored the first goal of her career as the lead grew to 7-0.

With just under six minutes remaining, Brandolini capped off the scoring with her third goal of the match as she once again dribbled through the defense and scored to make it 8-0.

For the match, Brandolini finished with three goals and a school-record four assists as she broke the mark of three assists set previously by Shelly Aldrich (2000), Kristen Votapek (2002), and Samantha Tomlinson (2006). The 10 total points was also a school record breaking the mark of nine points set by Kristen Votapek against Notre Dame College in 2002. Brandolini also increased her own school record by registering the sixth hat trick of her career. She now has 65 career goals, 43 career assists, and 173 points to rank second in school history in all three categories.

“Kristy has been doing a great job of creating scoring opportunities for us for the past four years,” said MVNU head coach Jonathan Meade. “She works really hard and is determined to succeed. She put everything together tonight and put on a clinic out on the field. She is a very unselfish player who does a great job of seeing her open teammates or taking the ball to goal herself.”

The Lady Cougars held a commanding 28-5 advantage in total shots and a 20-5 margin in shots on goal. Freshman Jenessa Loewen, senior Melissa Peters, and sophomore Whitney Tatko combined to stop five shots in goal as MVNU posted its third straight shutout and its sixth of the season. Sarah Sandlin stopped 12 shots for Rio Grande (4-8-0, 0-2-0 AMC South).

“We have talked a lot this week in practice about playing hard for 90 minutes,” said Meade. “We stressed working on the details in practice all week and about playing at our highest level for the entire match. We should not use our opponents as our measuring stick, but we should continue to push ourselves to reach the standard that we have set for ourselves.”

The Lady Cougars will return to action on Tuesday when MVNU will travel to Shawnee State University for another AMC South Division match that will kick off at 4:00 p.m.