Sep 21, 2008
No. 7 James Madison Nabs 1-0 Win Over No. 14 AU Field Hockey
Sept. 21, 2008
WASHINGTON - The No. 14 American University field hockey team fell to seventh-ranked James Madison University, 1-0, on Sunday at Jacobs Field. The Eagles drop to 3-4 on the season, while the Dukes improve to 6-1.
The first half saw a few good opportunities for each side, but neither team was able to get on the scoreboard. AU and JMU each took three shots on goal, with the Dukes putting all three on goal, but Eagles keeper Alyssa Poorman came up with three saves to preserve the 0-0 draw heading into the second half.
JMU drew a penalty corner just three minutes into the game and was inserted by Ashley Walls. She found Lauren Walls on the other end but the shot was sent wide of the goal off of an AU stick. The Eagles responded with a corner opportunity of their own just under two minutes later but Irene Schickhardt just missed the goal. AU dug out another pair of corners that resulted in two Christine Fingerhuth shots that were sent wide of the cage.
The Eagles offense continued to press, as they took six second half corners, however, the Dukes would play spoiler and tally in the 54th minute of play when Melissa Stefaniak collected a rebound off of a Dolores de Rooij shot to the right of the cage and gave JMU a 1-0 lead that would hold up for the game-winner.
"We had some very strong moments today against an excellent JMU team, unfortunately, they were able to finish one of their chances and we were unable to capitalize when the game was in our phase," said AU head coach Steve Jennings. "The way we are playing is giving us great opportunities to win and I am very confident we will be able to fine tune our offense to produce more goals."
Poorman finished with five saves on the day, while Dukes keeper Kelsey Cutchins made three stops.
AU held an 8-4 advantage in penalty corners.
The Eagles will resume non-conference play on Friday, Sept. 26 when the host the Richmond Spiders for a 3 p.m. contest at Jacobs Field.
