EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. – Fans may forget that Sarah Gabriele (Felton, Pa./York Catholic) is only a sophomore. Despite Kutztown University's 18-5 setback to No. 19 East Stroudsburg University on Wednesday, Gabriele continued her offensive prowess with a game-high five goals that should keep the entire Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) on notice.
 
Gabriele netted her ninth hat-trick of the season on her career-high-tying five-goal day. She has scored in 12-of-14 games this season while putting up hat-tricks in more than half of them (9-of-14).
 
She continues to increase her career-high scoring total with 40 in 2016. She is the fourth Golden Bear in program history to score 40 or more goals in a year and is tied for fourth in school history with Rachel Mehaffey's 2011 mark. Mehaffey's scoring-mark of 41 in 2009 is the most since the KU program was re-established in 2008.
 
At her current average of 2.86 goals per game, and three games remaining in the KU season, Gabriele is on pace for more than 45 goals that would rank her second all-time, only behind the school-record of 60 by KU Hall of Famer Mary Anne Botto in 1982.
 
For her career, Gabriele has scored 73 goals in nearly two years, tying her for seventh all-time in program history.
 
East Stroudsburg (12-3, 7-3 PSAC) showed why it is one of the best teams in Division II. It scored seven times in the first 10:00 of play and jumped out to a 14-2 lead in the first half, paced by four combined goals by attackers Taylor Jefferis and Kaitlynn Wiltraut.
 
Gabriele shot a career-high 12 times and won three draw controls. The Golden Bears (6-8, 2-7) won 14-of-24 draw controls, but were not able to come back from the early deficit.
 
Courtney O'Neill (Stratford, N.J./Sterling) picked up her 150th career groundball and caused her 100th career turnover on Wednesday. She leads the team with 33 groundballs this year and her career-mark ranks her fourth at KU. O'Neill is also the school-record holder in caused turnovers (100) and ranks fourth at KU with 82 career draw controls, two shy of third.
 
Kutztown played a clean game, only allowing one free-position shot. Lauren Huggins (Media, Pa./Penncrest) led the team with four groundballs and three caused turnovers. Emily Smith (Philadelphia, Pa./Saint Hubert Catholic) helped on the draw with a team-high three draw controls as well.
 
Jen Bergey (Souderton, Pa./Souderton) and Abby Cox (York, Pa./West York) shared the cage time, saving two shots each.
 
The Golden Bears look ahead to their final road game of the season to play No. 16 Indiana University of Pennsylvania at 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 16.