KENT, Ohio, Aug. 24, 2012 – James Madison field hockey jumped out to a 3-0 lead and held off a late rally to open up its 2012 season with a 3-2 win over Vermont at Murphy-Mellis Field in Kent, Ohio, on Friday.
The Dukes improved to 1-0 on the season and are now 7-2 in season openers under Head Coach Antoinette Lucas. Vermont dropped to 0-1 on the year.
Three different players tallied goals for the Dukes, including a goal and an assist each for redshirt junior forward Rachel Wein (Perryville, Md./Perryville) and sophomore forward Bethany Ashworth (Lititz, Pa./Warwick). Redshirt freshman Taylor West (Princess Anne, Md./Pocomoke) added her first goal and sophomore back Dana Allaband (Elkton, Md./Rising Sun) registered an assist.
Ashworth led all players with seven shots, with four of them finding the target. West and freshman back Loes Stijntjes (België, Belgium/Heilig-Hartcollege) recorded three shots each.
Vermont was paced by goals from Kelsey Bonner and Sally Snickenberger while Emily Tilton picked up the team’s only assist. Taylor Silvestro led the Catamounts with three shots, including two on goal. Snickenberger was the only other player to record multiple shots on goal with two.
Freshman goalkeeper Lena Wimmert (Bergisch Gladbach, Germany/Lise-Meitner Gymnasium) earned the win in net for Madison in her first career start. She played all 70 minutes made three saves on five shots on goal. Stephanie Zygmunt took the loss for Vermont to drop to 0-1. She ceded three goals and made five saves.
The Dukes outshot the Catamounts 17-9 and held a 9-4 advantage in penalty corners. Vermont held a 7-3 lead in save, including defensive saves from Jackie Bendick and Callie Bellimer.
The Dukes opened the scoring just 6:10 into the game on a penalty corner. Allaband shuffled a pass to West at the top of the circle and the freshman blasted it past Zygmunt for her seventh goal of her career. It was the fastest goal to start a season in the nine years under Lucas, besting the mark of 6:31 from a 2010 game against Rutgers.
Just under 26 minutes later, Wein slipped a pass to Ashworth in the center of the circle and the second-year Duke beat the keeper for her first goal of the year and the third of her career. That same duo hooked up again just after halftime, needing just 1:19 for Wein to hammer home a cross from Ashworth for her first tally of the year.
The score would remain that way until the 63:48 mark when Bonner picked up the ball on the left wing and fired home an unassisted goal to goal the lead to 3-1. Just over two minutes later Snickenberger capitalized on a penalty corner to cut the deficit to 3-2.
JMU fought off any more advances over the final 4:05 to hold on for the victory.
Madison is back in action on Sunday at Murphy-Mellis Field as it takes on Kent State in a noon game.
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