(ST. LOUIS, Mo., October 27)- Freshman forward Amy Cassiday (Rochester, Ill., Rochester) recorded her first collegiate hat trick on Wednesday afternoon in McKendree University's 9-0 regular season finale at Harris-Stowe State University. The win gave the No. 14 Bearcats their eighth consecutive regular season American Midwest Conference championship and the 10th regular season conference title in program history.

McKendree, now 14-3-1 overall (8-2 AMC), will be the top-seed in the AMC tournament and will have an automatic bye to the tournament semifinals on Tuesday, November 9th when they will host the lowest remaining tournament seed. Tournament play begins on Friday, November 5th.

Five players scored goals for McKendree in the win. Junior midfielder Chrissy Ghirardi (O'Fallon, Mo., Ft. Zumwalt South) scored the game-winning goal in the eighth minute on a free kick. Sophomore forward Carlee Luehmann (Granite City, Ill., Granite City) scored the first of her two goals in the 11th minute unassisted and senior midfielder Ashley Varns (Chatham, Ill., Glenwood) and Cassiday both scored goals right before halftime to give the Bearcats a 4-0 advantage at the break. Varns' goal was assisted by junior forward Erin Kilian (St. Louis, Mo., Kennedy), while Varns was credited with the assist for Cassiday's goal.

Cassiday scored her second goal of the afternoon in the 61st minute on a pass from senior midfielder Theresa Kaiser (St. Louis, Mo., Ursuline Academy) and junior forward Sulyn Keomanivane (Granite City, Ill., Granite City) scored her first of two goals on the day in the 63rd minute unassisted. Luehmann, Cassiday and Keomanivane each scored unassisted goals in the final 16 minutes of the contest.

Senior goalkeeper Liz Yanko (St. Louis, Mo., Rosati-Kain) played all  90 minutes in goal for the Bearcats and earned her sixth shutout of the season, while improving to 14-1-1 overall in goal.