• Junior Emory Gaeng tallied her first hat trick of the season scoring three times on just three shot attempts.
• Freshman Abby Hormes notched her second straight hat trick after scoring three goals against North Carolina last Friday.
• High Point led 7-6 with 6:04 left in the first half before James Madison responded with a 5-0 run and never relinquished the lead.
HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University women’s lacrosse team built a 7-6 margin late in the first half before No. 8/6 James Madison answered with a 5-0 run to take the lead en route to a 13-11 victory on Saturday in Vert Stadium.
The Panthers (1-2) were led by hat trick apiece from sophomore Emory Gaeng and freshman Abby Hormes. Meanwhile, sophomore Jill Rall made a season-high 12 saves to keep the Purple & White close despite the Dukes (4-0) 32-24 edge in shots.
“I’m really happy with our team’s composure today and I thought we did a great job of executing our gameplan and coming out with the energy and fire we needed after a week off,” head coach Lyndsey Boswell said. “JMU is a very good and experienced team and they were able to capitalize on our mistakes. I felt like had we made fewer mistakes we would have put ourselves in a better position halfway through the second half.”
High Point was plagued by turnovers in the contest committing 19 while JMU racked up 15 thanks in part to two caused turnovers by sophomore Meredith Chapman.
Gaeng needed just three shots to record her first hat trick of the season while Hormes’ three-goal outing was the second in a row for the Fallston, Md. native. Giving the Panthers four players with three points, seniors Darla Poulin and Erica Perrotta registered a goal and two assists apiece. Juniors Samantha Herman and Maggie Williams along with senior Erin Ilchuk accounted for HPU’s three other goals.
Sophomore Ashley Britton paced the squad with four draw controls while Chapman chipped in with three. Overall, JMU earned a 15-11 margin in draw controls and 13-12 edge in ground balls despite three from Herman.
After JMU opened the scoring, Gaeng and Hormes scored goals within 30 seconds to give HPU a 2-1 lead with 24:40 left in the first half. Then, under a minute later, Herman made it 3-1 before JMU quickly knotted the score at 3-all with 22:08 on the clock.
From there, the teams traded goals before Williams and Gaeng scored consecutive tallies to give HPU a 6-4 lead. Once again, the Dukes answered immediately tying the score at 6-all with 11:20 until the break. Hormes, though, broke the tie with 6:04 left in the half before JMU scored the final two tallies to go into the break up 8-7.
The visitors kept the momentum out of the break scoring three more unanswered goals to build an 11-7 advantage with 23:36 to play. Over the next 11 minutes, Ilchuk and Perrotta each scored as the teams traded goals as JMU led 13-9 with 12:04 to play.
In the closing minutes the Panthers mounted a comeback with Poulin scoring at the 3:25 mark and Hormes tallying another goal at 1:34. But the Dukes were able to gain possession late and run out the clock to preserve their victory.
The Panthers hit the road for the first time on Thursday when they head to Elon to take on the Phoenix at 6:00 p.m.