MILWAUKEE, Wis. - With a 5-1 victory over Wisconsin Lutheran Saturday afternoon, the Ripon College women's soccer team has now won or tied eight of their last nine regular season games, dating back to last season. The Red Hawks latest victory came thanks in large part to Paige Birschbach and Alyssa Kennedy, who recorded three and two goals, respectively.

Kennedy got the scoring started early, giving Ripon the first lead of the game less than a minute and a half into the first half, thanks to an assist from Morgan Johnson. Four minutes later, Kennedy scored on another assist by Johnson, giving her seven assists in Ripon's five games. That vaults her into the top 10 in Ripon's career record books with 12 career assists, while already ranking ninth on the school's single season list.

When Kennedy was finished scoring, Birschbach started. She netted her first goal in the 21st minute. After Wisconsin Lutheran scored to cut Ripon's lead to 3-1 at halftime, Birschbach added two more goals in the final 10 minutes of the second period, marking her second hat trick of the season. That moves Birschbach into eighth place in school history with 23 career goals just 25 games into her young career. Isabella Kohl and Stephanie Neumann were credited with the assists on Birschbach's final two goals.

"I'm pleased with our overall performance today," Head Coach Sam Schroeder said. "The next step for this group is to play a complete 90 minute match. It feels pretty good to be sitting at 3-1-1 without having played our best soccer or a complete game."

The Red Hawks dominated for much of the day, owning a shot advantage of 33-8. Morgan Smith played the entire game at Goal Keeper for Ripon, making four saves. Her counterpart, Wisconsin Lutheran's Rachel Sebald, also played all 90 minutes, saving 12 shots.

Ripon will be in action again on Tuesday at Marian University. That game will begin at 7 p.m. in Fond du Lac, Wis.