EAU CLAIRE Wis. -- Sophomore Sami Hackley scored a program-game-record seven goals, but the College of Saint Benedict (1-3) dropped an 18-13 nonconference decision to Wisconsin-Eau Claire (2-1) on Wednesday at Simpson Field.

With the setback, Saint Benedict dropped to 1-3 on the season. Next on the schedule for the Bennies will be a match up to open league play against Hamline in St. Paul, Minn., on March 20.

Hackley, who now has 48 career goals, recorded her 12th multi-goal game of her career, and has had six games of four goals or more while at CSB. Today, she was outstanding as evident through the school-record seven goals coming on nine shots on goal. She broke the mark of six goals in a game a year ago by Grace Fitzgibbons against Augsburg on April 29, 2023. Hackley now leads CSB with 11 goals and has 13 points for second in scoring on CSB.

For the first time in her career, first-year Emma Halweg had two goals in a game and now has four on the season. CSB also had goals from sophomore Emma Osland, who had two assists; sophomore Ella Steinke, who had a goal and an assist; first-year Tess Cavanaugh (second goal of the season) and first-year Lizzie Schrubbe, who had a goal and three assists. Schrubbe now has 17 points (nine goals, eight assists) to lead the Bennies. In goal, CSB's Chloe Lewis had nine saves in facing the 36 shots.

UW-Eau Claire had a 36-to-28 edge in shots while recording 24 ground balls to seven for CSB. The Bennies were 20-of-23 on clears. UW-Eau Claire was led in scoring by Victoria Shea and Reegan Werner, who both had four goals, while Samantha Burns added three.

The Blugolds opened up a 5-2 lead after a quarter and, with a 6-3 edge in the second frame, took an 11-6 advantage to halftime. The Bennies rallied and cut the lead to two goals early in the second half after goals by Hackley and Cavanaugh. With those two goals and strong defense, CSB won the third quarter by a 3-2 margin. However, UW-EC maintained the lead and used a 5-4 edge in the fourth quarter to pick up the nonconference win and second straight win in two years against CSB.

Game Summary
UW-Eau Claire opened up a 4-0 lead after a goal from Werner (11:59). Then, Schrubbe put the Bennies on the board with an unassisted tally (7:02). Down, 5-1, Hackley started her run of goals by recording two straight goals (5:28, 3:13) as CSB was within, 5-3. The Blugolds took a 9-3 lead with four consecutive goals before Hackley (5:57) had her third goal off an assist from Osland.

A pair of unassisted goals from Devon Crews (13:46) and Peyton Gullickson (12:42) put UW-EC's lead back to 10-4 before Hackley had two more goals (3:38, :53) with the second tally off a Schrubbe assist as the Bennies pulled within 10-6.

Down 11-6 at the break, the Bennies scored three straight goals to open the third quarter and pulled within 11-9. Halweg's unassisted goal (12:40) opened the run before Hackley (11:45) and Cavanaugh (6:12) both scored for CSB. However, UW-Eau Claire answered with a pair of goals for a 13-9 lead at the quarter break.

Down 14-9, CSB had goals from Steinke (9:45) and Hackley (9:20) to again reduce the deficit to three goals at 14-11. The Blugolds responded with three straight goals for a 17-11 lead. Osland's goal (3:22) stopped the run before Halweg's goal (3:04) cut the lead to 17-13 but just 3:04 remained in the game.