Box Score

ANNVILLE, Pa. - Most freshman might be nervous playing in their first NCAA Tournament game. Judging by her hat trick, butterflies weren't an issue for Jocelyn Novak .

Novak notched three goals and an assist to lead #8 Lebanon Valley College past New England College, 6-0, in the NCAA First Round Wednesday at the LVC Field Hockey Stadium

LVC will now travel to Bowdoin College in Maine to face #6 Middlebury College Saturday at 2 p.m. In that regional's other game, defending national national champion and third-ranked Bowdoin will play Stevens Tech, a 2-1 winner over Wooster on Wednesday.

Free streaming video and live stats of that game will be available on GoDutchmen.com on Saturday.

"Hopefully we'll take it up to another level," said Head Coach Laurel Martin as she looked towards the match-up with Middlebury. "It's a very challenging bracket, but we look forward to the challenge."

It was the second hat trick of the postseasn for Novak, who also scored three against Elizabethtown in the Commonwealth Conference semifinals. She now has 32 goals and 68 points this season. Danielle Blase, Avery Carter, and Sarah Bevans also added goals for the Dutchmen.

"We started off strong," Novak said. "You just try to keep it up."

LVC dominated the game, outshooting the Pilgrims (17-5) by a 35-3 margin and holding a 12-2 advantage on penalty corners.

Lebanon Valley opened the scoring with two goals just 19 seconds apart. Blase put the Dutchmen up 11:27 into the game when she tipped Novak's pass on an inside scramble, and Novak then ran right on goal from the ensuing restart and punched in the second score.

Carter put back a rebound at 14:20 to make it a 3-0 game, but her bid for a second minutes later was denied as her penalty stroke was saved by Mary Roux.

The Dutchmen tacked on three more in the second half, including two from Novak and a fantastic tandem run that ended with Alex Wolfe feeding Bevans on the left for LVC's sixth goal.

Roux made some outstanding stops for the Pilgrims and ended up with 21 saves, while NEC made four defensive saves, three by Holly Soule and one by Khatianna Evans.

Caitlin Baro made one save to earn the shutout, her second career NCAA cleansheet.