BOONE, N.C. – App State Field Hockey won its first game against a Top 25 ranked opponent in school history on Friday night by beating No. 24 James Madison 2-0 in an intense defensive match.
After a scoreless first quarter, senior midfielder
Friederike Stegen scored in a go-ahead corner play to put the Mountaineers up 1-0. Junior and freshman midfielders
Pauline Mangold and
Sterre Molkenboer assisted Stegen on the goal.
"Initially, I thought to do a drag flick, but I saw that the left side was open," Stegen said. "So I just tried to sweep to the left and it went in."
Stegen later assisted
Carli Ciocco for the Mountaineers' second goal in the third quarter that put App State up 2-0.
"She (Stegen) passed me the ball down the side, and I was able to move around the goalie and score the goal," Ciocco said.
In the fourth quarter, both teams left it all out on the field. The Black & Gold held their lead and played aggressive defense to close out the Dukes, who took seven goals in the final period.
Addie Clark finished with eight saves in the goal, including two dives that kept James Madison at zero points.
Head Coach
Meghan Dawson spoke about their tough fourth quarter after the game.
"JMU was just going really hard. They had a lot of opportunities," Dawson said. "Our game plan was, defend, defend, defend.
"We needed to make sure that we didn't do any dangerous passes, and we played to the outsides and forced JMU to do a lot of work to try to attack and come back."
After this huge win, the Mountaineers have improved to 2-2 for the season, and look to grab another win this Sunday against Ohio State at 1 p.m. The neutral-site game will be played at Bessant Field in Charlotte, N.C.
