Gwynedd Valley, Pa. – Colonial States Athletic Conference Player of the Year Melissa Russo scored five goals to lead top-seeded Gwynedd Mercy University to an 8-2 victory over #4 Keystone College in a CSAC field hockey semifinal on Wednesday night. 
 
The Griffins improve to 13-5 on the season and advance to Saturday's CSAC championship game for the seventh year in a row where they will host #2 Cabrini University, a 3-0 winner over #3 Marywood University in Wednesday's other semifinal matchup.
 
Wednesday's contest marked the final game in a Keystone uniform for seniors Alissa Nugent (Chestertown, Md./Kent County) and Breanna Paulson (Mountain Top, Pa./Crestwood) who led the Giants to back-to-back CSAC playoff appearances for the first time since the team made three-straight postseason appearances from 2008-2010.  Keystone finished the 2016 season with a 6-11 record.
 
Gwynedd Mercy opened the scoring in the 10^th minute of Wednesday's contest when Russo scored off a Kaitlyn Lutz assist before doubling its lead in the 16^th minute when Russo netted her second goal of the game with Abigail Gabriel setting up the tally.
 
Russo completed the natural hat trick in the 19^th minute of play after taking a pass from Brianna O'Connell to give the hosts a 3-0 advantage before Lutz scored an unassisted goal off a rebound to extend Gwynedd Mercy's lead to four goals in the 22^nd minute.
 
Russo deflected in a shot from Shannon Carroll in the 23^rd minute to push the Griffins' cushion to 5-0 heading into halftime with her fourth tally of the evening.
 
O'Connell scored off a feed from Erika Cimino just under five minutes into the second half before Russo tallied her fifth goal of the game of a Madison Reiss assist less than a minute later to push Gwynedd Mercy's advantage to seven goals.
 
Shelby Croasdale (Nicholson, Pa./Lackawanna Trail) broke up the Griffins' shutout bid in the 45^th minute, scoring her third goal of the season on a penalty corner with Kayla Bain (Lancaster, Pa./J.P. McCaskey) assisting on the goal. 
 
Gwynedd Mercy's Kaitlyn Burguillos tallied an unassisted goal with 1:28 left on the clock before Ayana Crawford (Washington, D.C./Elizabeth Seton) scored her third goal of the season off of Bain's second helper of the contest to close out the scoring. 
 
Bain's assist was her fourth of the season and brought her team-leading point total to 30 on the year which marks the third-highest single season point total in Keystone history.

Samantha Soscia picked up the win in goal for the Griffins by making two saves over the first 49:38 while Sarah Crane turned aside a pair of shots in the final 20:22 for the hosts, who held a 25-6 advantage in shots for the game along with a 23-4 lead in penalty corners.
 
Emily Hawkins (Glenside, Pa./Cheltenham) suffered the loss in net for the Giants despite making eight saves in just over 49 minutes of action.  Megan Novak (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./Coughlin) stopped six shots in nearly 21 minutes of action while Daphne Leenas (Ringwood, N.J./Lakeland Regional) made a pair of defensive saves in the loss for Keystone.