BOONE, N.C. - Appalachian State University field hockey waited 28 days after its first exhibition of the fall to play the regular season home opener, but No. 19 James Madison played the role of spoiler with a 5-0 win over the Mountaineers.

"The team had a tough first half, but picked it up in the second," said head coach Meghan Dawson. "JMU is a very talented and fast team."

The Dukes won their fifth straight match to improve to 5-1 while App State (1-6) came out on the losing end for a fifth-straight time. The visitors recorded four of their five goals in the first half before a much stingier defensive second period from Appalachian State.

James Madison entered the match third in the nation in goals per game with 5.2 and met that quota on Friday afternoon. Individually, Loes Stijntjes was pacing the offense and that didn't change against the Mountaineers. Stijntjes scored two of the team's four goals to give her a team-leading seven, Taylor West scored a pair and the fifth came off the stick of Casey O'Donnell.

In goal, Cristina Ceppi accumulated seven saves and allowed five goals, but as mentioned above, only one was surrendered in the final 35 minutes. The Dukes outshot the Mountaineers 23-3 and held the advantage in penalty corners, 11-4. Two of App State's three attempts came from Taylor Cimbalist while the other was from Caroline Phillips off the bench.

Dawson continued, "We grew as a team throughout the game and I'm happy that our development from last spring to this fall has shown, but we aren't satisfied with just improving, we want to win."

Sunday, Appalachian State will host La Salle and that match is set for an 11 a.m. start.