The Covenant women's soccer team got above .500 for the first time all season by dismantling USA South conference foe Mary Baldwin 12-1 on Friday afternoon.
The Lady Scots (5-4-1, 3-0 USA South) got their highest goal output since 2008, when they throttled Judson (Ala.) on October 14 by a 13-0 score. With its 3-0 mark in the USA South, Covenant remains one of three teams at the top of the league standings with Maryville and Meredith. Mary Baldwin falls to 2-5 on the season, and 0-3 in conference play.
Anna Porch and Sophia Gianis each had hat tricks to lead the Lady Scots.
It was Porch's second hat trick of the year, while Gianis registers her first career three-goal match. Covenant also got two-goal games from Christy Barton and Katherine Keller. Annie Sostok and Andrea Hunt added a goal apiece
Porch kicked off the scoring for Covenant, finding the back of the net just over five minutes into the game with Barton assisting. Exactly one minute later, it was Barton who netted her second goal of the season off a Natalie Smith assist.
Porch struck again to make it 3-0 in the 10th minute, taking an assist from Jenna Vreeland and putting it past Fighting Squirrels keeper Hayley Gillen.
It was Gianis' turn to score next, taking a pass from Hunt and scoring in the 23rd minute. The 12:56 between their third and fourth goals of the was the longest scoring drought of the game for the Lady Scots.
Hunt and Gianis would net goals to round out the first half scoring and give Covenant a 6-0 lead going into the break.
In the second half, Mary Baldwin trotted out a new goalkeeper in Samantha Chong, hoping that she would be able to stop the bleeding. But the result was much the same, as Barton scored her second goal of the game just 5:27 into the second half on an assist from Rachel Bernard.
Porch recorded her second hat trick of the year 68 seconds later. Gianis joined Porch with a hat trick of her own, the first of her career, when she scored in the 88th minute
Lady Scots keeper Lucy Johnson saw her string of consecutive scoreless minutes stopped at 376:36 when Mary Baldwin's Bridget Lane scored in the 56th minute. Johnson stopped three shots on the afternoon, as Covenant piled up a 22-4 shots on goal advantage.
Covenant will have a quick turnaround as they play again on Saturday at USA South foe Meredith at 4:30 p.m.