Krieg's Hat-Trick Sends Tigers Into Second Round

St. Louis, Mo. – The Wittenberg women's soccer team defeated the Saints of Thomas More College 3-2 in a thrilling overtime opening round of the 2017 NCAA Tournament from WashU. Wittenberg would be led by Kaitlyn Krieg completing her first collegiate hat-trick, as she would help the Tigers come back from two separate Thomas More leads. The Saints found the back of the net first in the 14^th minute, holding on the lead through the intermission. Krieg would start her comeback crusade in the 47^th minute, following the initial Jordyn Wright shot to tie the game at 1-1. Wittenberg picked up the urgency is the clock wound down, doubling the Saints shot count 22-11. The Tigers recorded 14 shots in the second half alone with the feel and anticipation of goal scoring chances happening, before Krieg knotted things back up at 2-2 in the 87^th minute coming off the Leah Soutar assist. Soutar would connect with Krieg in the beginning moments of extra time, as the Tigers would take their first lead at 92:31 and ending the game on the golden goal.

Kelly Corbin made her first NCAA Tournament start in net for the Tigers, recording three saves against five Saints shots on goal.

Wittenberg is 8-2 in their last 10 games and improve to 5-6 in NCAA postseason play. Wittenberg improves to 3-1 in NCAA first-round games, as the Tigers will be making their first Second Round appearance since 2009 when falling to Calvin 1-0 in Grand Rapids. 

There are 400+ teams and only 64 make it to NCAA. Now, 32 are still playing and we are one of them. Total TEAM win last night! @kkrieg19 and @L_Sout connect for the hat trick in Round 1. ���� pic.twitter.com/ZgbGnGB05h

— Witt Women's Soccer (@WittWSoccer) November 12, 2017

UP NEXT: The Tigers have survived the first round, advancing to take on defending NCAA DIII National Champions WashU at 8:00 PM. This will be the first meeting between Wittenberg and WashU.