Worcester, Mass. – All-American Mel Melkonian (Worcester, Mass.) scored three goals for the second straight contest and senior Erin Murphy (Boxboro, Mass.) added another as host Clark won its fourth straight game, knocking off area-rival Nichols College, 4-1, in non-league field hockey action on Tuesday evening.

The hat trick for Melkonian is the 11th of her career, while Murphy notches a goal and an assist for the second straight contest.

Clark (4-1) got on the board a little more than five minutes in when Melkonian took a feed from Talia Fish (Philadelphia, Pa.) for her ninth goal of the season.

Melkonian was back at it less eight minutes later when Murphy set her up off of a penalty corner at 12:51.

Nichols (2-1) cut that lead in half early in the second stanza when Krista-Jean Forand (Plymouth, Mass.) banged the back of the cage for her third marker of the season.

The Cougars struck back at the 52:40 mark when Melkonian put home an unassisted tally. Murphy then sealed the victory on a penalty corner on a feed from Madeleine Lutts (Salem, Mass.) with less than seven minutes left to play.

Freshman netminder Melanie Melanson (Simsbury, Conn.) turned back a career-high 14 shots for the Bison, while Clark keeper Kate McGrath (Wilmington, Mass.) made five stops.

The four consecutive wins for the Cougars is the longest winning streak for the Scarlet and White since they won the first four games to start the 2004 season.

Nichols returns to the field on Thursday when they visit Fitchburg State, while Clark opens up NEWMAC play with MIT on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. That matchup will feature the conference's two highest scoring players in the Engineers' Kameron Klauber (25 points – seven goals, 11 assists) and the Cougars' Melkonian (24 points – 11 goals, two assists).