Ashley Gippe's Hat Trick Leads #15 JMU to 7-2 Win at Towson in Regular-Season Finale

Sunday, October 29

Towson, Md.

1 p.m.

James Madison University

(12-5, 5-1CAA)

Towson

(1-16, 0-6CAA)

James Madison

Towson

Ashley Gippe's Hat Trick Leads #15 JMU to 7-2 Win at Towson in Regular-Season Finale

10/29/2017 4:02:00 PM | Field Hockey

Box Score

TOWSON, Md. – Junior Ashley Gippe tallied her first collegiate hat trick to lead No. 15 James Madison field hockey (12-5, 5-1 CAA) to a 7-2 victory at Towson (1-16, 0-6 CAA) in both teams' regular-season finale.

Gippe's career-best three goals led five Dukes who scored on Sunday afternoon. JMU outshot Towson 25-5, including 20-4 advantage on goal. The Dukes also earned eight corners, seven in the second half, compared to the Tigers' three, which all came in the first half.

HOW WE GOT HERE

Ashley Gippe scored the first, sixth and seventh goals of the day, starting with a rebound off the post. Her second came from a redirected pass by her twin, Lindsay Gippe, from outside the circle before she finished the day with a corralled loose ball in front of the cage off a save rebound.
Miranda Rigg took a left pass from Casey O'Donnell at the top of the circle and fired it home to give JMU a 2-0 lead just 16:53 into play.
Corey Mayer picked up a deflection and drove around the top of the circle, sending it into the far corner for a 3-0 JMU lead with 22:37 having elapsed.
On a through ball, Lisa Lejeune blasted the ball from left and scored the fourth JMU goal of the day just 34 seconds later.
With 24:14 having passed in the first half, Megan Guzzardi found the cage wide open to slot home the fifth JMU goal of the day.
Towson broke onto the scoreboard with 5:19 left in the first half with a blast from the top of the circle. The Tigers also scored the final goal of the afternoon with a centering pass from the right 8:33 into the second frame.

FIRSTS ON FIRSTS

Junior Ashley Gippe tallied her first collegiate hat trick, surpassing her previous best of two goals in a game, which she had done twice in her career.
Redshirt sophomore Megan Guzzardi scored her first collegiate goal.
Junior Lindsay Gippe earned the first assist of her collegiate career when she dished it to her sister. She also had her first start of the 2017 campaign.
Junior Casey O'Donnell earned the first assist of her collegiate career when she found Miranda Rigg for the first-half tally.

GETTING RIGG-Y WITH IT
Junior Miranda Rigg scored the 36th goal of her career on Sunday, moving her into a three-way tie for 14th all-time in JMU history (Tara Nappi – '98, Mona Ryabik – '87). Her ascent to the top-15 was done in 57 games, fewer than both Nappi (77) and Ryabik (74). She needs five goals to move into the top 10.

STRETCHING IT OUT
Sophomore Lisa Lejeune has scored in each of the last five games, reaching the season-high streak that senior Melanie Kusakavitch set through games 11-15. No Duke had reached a five-game streak since Loes Stinjtjes opened the 2014 season scoring in five consecutive games.

CONSTANT IN THE CAGE
Senior Sara Kraeutler appeared in her 59th game, earning her 38th career victory. She has seen 3,764 minutes in the cage for JMU, ranking fifth in program history. She needs just five more minutes in between the pipes to move into fourth all-time.

SERIES NOTES
JMU has now won 23 consecutive contests against Towson. This marks the Dukes' largest goal total (7) when playing on the Tigers' home turf.

UP NEXT
No. 15 JMU has earned the number two seed for the upcoming Colonial Athletic Association tournament, hosted by top seed Delaware, and faces third-seeded No. 19 William & Mary in the semifinals on Friday, Nov. 3. No. 7 Delaware faces Northeastern, the fourth seed.