AMHERST, MA - Junior Ashley Harmeling (N. Reading, MA) scored a hat trick before the 18-minute mark, all on passes from sophomore Sarah Coleman (New Haven, CT), to lead the Amherst College women's soccer team to a 4-2 win over visiting Springfield College on Thursday. Junior Tracy Montigny (E. Granby, CT) added the fourth goal on an assist from Harmeling to secure the victory for the Jeffs, who improve to 3-2-1 on the season.

Harmeling wasted no time getting started and scored her first goal off a long pass from Coleman at 3:52. Not even two minutes later, Coleman found her again with a lob into the box, where Harmeling punched it home past the challenging Springfield keeper. At the 17:38-mark, they hooked up to complete the hat trick when Coleman sent a beautiful lofted pass over the defense and Harmeling beat the keeper to the ball for her seventh goal of the year. The visiting Pride mounted a comeback in the second half when senior Laura Harwood (Longmeadow, MA) drilled a shot into the upper right corner off a crossing pass from first-year Hallie Vail (Greely, ME) in the 49th minute. Vail then added one of her own on a left-footed blast from the top of the box exactly 20 minutes later to pull Springfield within one. Less than 30 seconds later Harmeling found Montigny to put the game away for the Jeffs.

First-year keeper Jeanette Crowell (San Rafael, CA) had six saves for Amherst, while sophomore Christina Davis (Orange, CT) notched four for Springfield, which drops to 3-3-1 on the year.

Amherst returns to action Saturday at 11 a.m. against NESCAC rival and 23rd-ranked Bowdoin College.