BRIARCLIFF MANOR, N.Y. - Hat tricks by four players pushed the Saint Michael's College women's lacrosse team to a 17-11 victory over Pace University on Saturday at Pace Field and clinched the Purple Knights their first Northeast-10 Conference Championship berth since 2008.

At 6-8 overall and 6-7 in the league, its highest league win total in seven years, the Purple and Gold will hold down the No. 8 seed in the tournament and head to No. 1 Adelphi University on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. quarterfinal. Pace concludes its first varsity season at 5-11 and 3-10.

Senior Courtney Piper (Wolfeboro, N.H./Brewster Academy) finished the day with three goals and three assists for Saint Michael's, moving into a tie with Christine Sullivan '95 for fifth in school history with 42 career helpers. She also has 125 points, good for 11th in program annals, and just two shy of the top 10. Senior Melissa Jaskiewicz (Kensington, Md./Bethesda-Chevy Chase) added three goals, a career-high 10 draw controls, three ground balls and two caused turnovers, and junior Steph Bonewald (New London, N.H./Proctor Academy) had three goals and four draw controls. Sophomore Paige MacKinnon (Lowell, Mass./Lowell) posted the fourth Purple Knight hat trick. As the first of three goalkeepers, classmate Grace Gunning (Norwell, Mass./Norwell) made seven saves in 41:55 for the victory.

Senior Kate Boyer (Standish, Maine/Bonny Eagle) tacked on two goals and an assist to push her career points total to 96, as only 15 Purple Knights have ever reached 100. She added three draw controls. Senior Kim Liberty (Jericho, Vt./Mount Mansfield Union/Saint Lawrence) scored twice, and first-year Kealy Moyna (Yonkers, N.Y./The Ursuline School) had one goal and one assist. Junior Casey Curtin (Waltham, Mass./Ursuline Academy) made one save in 10:41 of relief before first-year Kaitlyn Wurzer (Lee, N.H./Berwick Academy) faced one shot in 7:24.

First-year Casey Gelderman (Farmingville, N.Y./Sachem East) scored four times for Pace, while classmate Stephanie Chadnick (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) notched three goals and an assist. First-year Angela Kelly (Garnerville, N.Y./North Rockland) also rattled off a hat trick, and classmate Rachael Casasanta (Wallingford, Conn./Sacred Heart Academy) dished off three assists. First-year Alissa Silvestri (Congers, N.Y./Clarkstown North) made five stops in 51:49.

Bonewald scored twice 1:06 apart in the opening 2:41 of the game before Boyer converted a Piper feed at 24:56 of the opening half to put the Purple Knights ahead by a 3-0 count. Gelderman's tally 2:25 later was met by six consecutive Saint Michael's markers in a matter of 7:17, with Jaskiewicz and Liberty both scoring twice in that stretch. Saint Michael's took an 11-3 advantage into halftime after Bonewald and Piper both tallied in the final 2:24.

After MacKinnon scored 58 into the second half to put her team ahead by nine, five of the next seven goals came from Setters, with Kelly scoring all three of her goals in that time. Boyer and Moyna later scored 36 seconds apart to produce a 16-8 margin, and despite Gelderman scoring the next three goals, Saint Michael's continued to lead by five in the final minute before MacKinnon tacked on one last tally just before the horn.