Riverdale, NY - Freshman attacker
Grace Lipponer (Lake Grove, NY / Sachem North) recorded the first three goals of her collegiate career in the second half, but Vermont staved off a second-half Manhattan surge to take it 10-7 in the Jaspers' 2019 season opener.
The Kelly Green and White drop to 0-1 on the young campaign, while the Catamounts improve their record to 2-0.
After taking a 5-2 lead into halftime and scoring two quick goals in the second stanza, Vermont went up five goals before the J's rattled off three unanswered goals to push it to 7-5 with 12:46 to play. Junior attacker
Emily Englert (Somers, NY / Somers) sandwiched her first goal of the season in between two Lipponer tallies.
Senior attacker
Molly Fitzpatrick (Yorktown, NY / Lakeland) added two goals, while sophomore attacker
Alaina Burgess (Holden, MA / The Governor's Academy) accounted for the rest of the scoring. Senior goalkeeper
Nikki Prestiano (Yorktown Heights, NY / Yorktown) made 11 saves while allowing 10 goals.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
- Lipponer became the first Jasper to notch a hat trick in her collegiate debut since Julia Lavelle potted three goals against Howard on February 21, 2008.
- Freshmen Cassidy Burns (Massapequa, NY / Plainedge) also got the start in her Manhattan debut. Classmates Annie Freshour (Smithtown, NY / Smithtown East) and Gabby Richter (West Chester, PA / Bishop Shanahan) also trekked the Gaelic Park turf for the first time in their careers.
- Fitzpatrick collected the 28th multi-goal game of her career. She now has 90 career goals, which is one away from the top 10 all-time.
- Prestiano now has 16 double-digit save outputs in her career. She now has 409 career stops as a Jasper.
- Freshour, senior Caitlin Murphy (Carmel, NY / Carmel), juniors Emily Sandford (Floral Park, NY / Sacred Heart) and Deb Peifer (Collegeville, PA / Methacton) and sophomore Carmella Liscio (Blauvelt, NY / Tappan Zee) registered assists. It was the first-career helpers for Peifer and Freshour.
- Burns and Fitzpatrick tied for the team lead with four ground balls. Senior defender Emma Kaishian (Yorktown, NY / Yorktown) was tops with five draw controls.
- Manhattan held a slight advantage in ground balls at 28-27.
- Vermont retakes the series lead at 3-2. The visitor has won the last two games by a score of 10-7.
FIRST HALF
- Fifty-one seconds in, Vermont's Jenny Caoili rolled right in front of the net, only to have Prestiano deny her high shot for her 400th career save.
- Burgess registered Manhattan's opening goal of the season 1:48 into the affair by faking out her defender, advancing towards the goal and firing a low-low shot past netminder Maddy Kuras.
- With about five minutes down in the first half, the Catamounts' Jenna Janes scooped a ground ball off a Jasper turnover and laced a shot on net, forcing Prestiano to catch it chest-high.
- At 18:13 on the clock in the first with a 1-1 score, Vermont's Grace Giancola worked right from 10 meters out, but Prestiano made a cross-body stop to keep the game level.
- Fitzpatrick's first tally in 2019 came off a free-position goal with 3:48 until halftime, going high-low to tuck it into the left corner.
SECOND HALF
- Almost halfway through the second half, Caoili weaved through the eight-meter fan for a close-range shot that Prestiano kept out of the net with a save at her neck.
- Lipponer threaded the needle on a man-up opportunity at the 15:49 mark in the second frame when Sandford dished it to the rookie from the left side, cutting the deficit to 7-3.
- Forty-eight seconds afterwards, Freshour found Englert cutting from the left. The Somers product slinged it from her right side and scored in the left side of the twine.
- Lipponer capped the Jaspers' 3-0 run with 12:46 to play in similar circumstances to her first strike: a snipe from her right off a Liscio feed during a man-up chance.
- After Vermont made it 8-5, Peifer raced past a defender from 25 meters out and found Fitzpatrick, who ducked under two Catamounts and found the back of the net with 6:15 to go.
- Manhattan capped the scoring at 4:22 in the second when Murphy tossed it to an open Lipponer, who drove down the left lane and faked Kuras high, sending down a low-low shot to complete the hat trick.
