>Site: 
September 20 | Sweet Briar, Va. | Meyer Field

>Score: 
Salem 5, Sweet Briar 2

>Records: 
Salem (4-2) / Sweet Briar (2-2)

>Next Match:
Salem vs. Southern Virginia| September 24 | 4:00 p.m. | Varsity Field | Winston-Salem, N.C.

SWEET BRIAR, Va. – Darilyn Nieto notched her third hat trick of the season, while Nathaly Berrezueta added two goals, to lead Salem to a 5-2 win over Sweet Briar in its final non-conference clash of the 2024 season. 

The three goals by Nieto give her 15 on the season and 45 in her career at Salem, one shy of Sawyer Ferguson's program mark of 46 career goals. The 15 goals put Nieto in a four-way tie for third-most single-season goals in program history. Ferguson also tops the record book in that category, scoring a single-season high 19 goals during the 2012 campaign. 

Sweet Briar opened scoring with a strike by Jillian Lewis in the ninth-minute, which reached the back of the net past a diving Addie Roe. However, Nieto tied the contest at one with a goal of her own at the 30-minute mark, following a pass from Maddie Sharrai. 

Berrezueta found an open Nieto in the 38th-minute of play, where the junior forward drove the shot into the back of the net, giving Salem a 2-1 lead. 

Berrezueta took advantage of a pass from first year classmate Hallie Kramer, sending home her fourth goal of the season as Salem assumed a 3-1 lead heading into the intermission. 

The Spirits' lead improved to 4-1 in the 76th-minute when Nieto completed her hat trick with a shot to the center of the net, resulting in her 15th goal of the season. That was just over 10 minutes before Berrezueta extended the Salem lead to 5-1 on her third goal of the campaign. 

Sweet Briar tacked on its final goal inside the final two minutes of action, by virtue of a pass from Maddie Ickes to Alexis Diaz. The Vixens closed the match with 29 shots, including 19 shots on goal. 

Salem attempted 24 shots over the course of the match, driving home 17 shots in the direction of the net. 

Roe picked up the win in net for Salem, making 17 saves in the process. That marks the sixth-most single-match saves by a netminder in Spirits history. Roe's counterpart, Trista Cleaves, finished with 12 saves for the Vixens. 

Nieto led the way with 12 shots (10 shots on goal) for the Spirits and Diaz was tops for Sweet Briar with 10 shots (eight SOG).