Ottumwa -- An IHCC field that was covered in a blanket of snow Tuesday morning was cleared and ready for soccer in the afternoon when Indian Hills squared off against Iowa Central CC in the semifinals of the Region XI postseason tournament.  First, the Indian Hills facilities folks did their work to get the field ready for the important matchup; then Emily Murphy went to work for the Warriors.

Murphy opened up the scoring with a goal off a nice assist from Kiri Chiba in the 8th minute.  The IHCC sophomore later took a cross from Madison L. Meyer with 7:20 left in the opening period and buried her second goal of the half.  Murphy, about 17 minutes into the second half, knocked home her third goal with Chiba again assisting to complete her sixth hat trick this season and the 14th of her IHCC career.  Chiba put another goal on the board for the Warriors with 17 minutes remaining, assisted by Yui Okamoto.

The Tritons scored just once, with three minutes left in the match, to avoid the shutout but their season came to an end.

Elani Mears was superb in goal for Indian Hills, stopping12 ICCC shots.  The Warriors were outshot 20-16, but they made the most of their scoring opportunities in their 15th win of the fall.

Murphy has 33 goals in 2019 and 70 for her illustrious career.

She'll have a chance to add to that total when the Warriors make the trip to Iowa Western on Saturday for the Region XI championship match.  Iowa Western defeated Hawkeye CC to earn the matchup with Indian Hills.  The Warriors (now 15-1-1) will be looking to break through after having Iowa Western end their season in the postseason tourney each of the past four years.  The teams met once in the regular season and IWCC won, 3-1.

Game time will be 2:00 at the Reivers' field Saturday.