COMMERCE – Sierra Anderson picked a great time to record the first hat trick of her career and Shantel Wittke stood tall in goal with a career-high eight saves to lead the No. 20-ranked Angelo State soccer team to a 3-1 Lone Star Conference Championship semifinal win over Eastern New Mexico on Friday at the Lion Soccer Field. The victory sends the Rambelles to their first ever LSC tournament final in their 20-year program history.  

ASU (15-3-1) will play at 1 p.m. on Sunday against Texas A&M-Commerce in the championship final. The Lions earned a 2-1 win over Midwestern State in Friday's second semifinal matchup. 

Anderson's hat trick comes in a season where she had three two-goal games and now has 14 goals on the season. Haley Mendel, who assisted on Anderson's third goal, now leads the team with six assists. Mendel had the only other hat trick of the ASU season when she scored three goals against Colorado Mesa. Anderson scored two first-half goals and added another in the 85th minute as the Rambelles won their fifth straight game. 

"I just really wanted to work hard for my team and make sure I did what I needed to do in front of the goal," said Anderson, who was named the LSC Co-Offensive Player of the Year on Thursday. "Each and every goal I just told myself that I was going to get it for the team and I did. We are just trying do everything we can to keep advancing and this was a good first step."

The Rambelles were aggressive from the start, owning an 18-5 shot advantage in the first half and taking a 2-1 halftime lead after Anderson scored her second goal with just six seconds remaining in the half off an assist from Lauren Perry. The 45th minute goal came after she had scored an unassisted goal in the 11th minute on a breakaway. ASU also had a 4-2 lead on corner kicks in the first half and showcased more dominance than a 2-1 scoreboard showed.

"We really wanted to come out and control the match the first 15-20 minutes," ASU head coach Travis McCorkle said. "They had a great game against us at their place and we knew that coming out strong and trying to take over the emotional aspect of the game was important for us. I thought the girls did a good job with that in the first half."

Wittke finished the game with a career-high eight assists for the Rambelles with two saves in the first half and six in the second. She had previously recorded seven saves against Texas Woman's earlier this season. Wittke faced 15 total shots, allowing only one when Jenna Siever found the net on an unassisted shot from the top of the box. Named the LSC Co-Goalkeeper of the Year on Thursday, Wittke now has 64 saves this season and picked up her 13th win of the season against the Zias.

"Shantel did a great job in assisting Caitlyn Conaway and the remaining defenders with the organization in the back," ASU assistant coach Shayla Sabin said. "With the field extremely wet, it puts more responsibility on the defensive unit. Shantel came up big when she needed to and handled the wet conditions extremely well."

ASU's offense finished the game with a 22-15 total shot advantage with both teams having nine shots on goal. Tiffany Dang and Haley Mendel each had five shots for the Rambelles, while Selena Alvarez had two. The offense was led by Anderson though, who made her presence felt throughout the night with nine shots and three goals.

"Offensively, Sierra just continued beating her defender over and over again," ASU head coach Travis McCorkle said. "It didn't matter who it was, Sierra had control tonight. She just continues building on her confidence and is doing a great job for our team."