Storey’s Brace Leads Wake Forest Over App State

BOONE, N.C. - Guided by a stellar defensive effort and a pair of goals from freshman Lauren Storey, the Wake Forest field hockey team earned their first win of 2024 with a 4-1 victory over App State on Friday evening at Dr. Jan C. Watson Field at the Brandon & Erica M. Adcock Field Hockey Complex.

Wake Forest (1-3, 0-0 ACC) held App State (2-3, 0-0 MAC) without a shot over the first 49 minutes of the contest and allowed just one shot on goal. The Deacs generated 15 shots of their own, placing 12 on the cage.

On the first offensive chance of the night, freshman Mia Montag scored her first career goal to put the Deacs up 1-0 nine minutes into the match. Junior Rachel Thetford generated the chance for Wake, taking the ball off the stick of a Mountaineer attacker to lead to an outlet opportunity for the Demon Deacon offense.

With the first half winding down, Columbia transfer Anabelle Brodeur found sophomore Flo Tuthill inside of the circle, who slipped the Deacs second goal into the left side of the cage and make it 2-0 before the half.

The Mountaineers had no answers for Storey in the second half, as she fired a penalty stroke past the App State keeper in the third quarter to extend the Wake Forest lead. The Auckland, New Zealand native capped the scoring for Wake early in the fourth quarter on an assist from senior Brooke McCusker.

With the win, head coach Jen Averill improved to 32-0 all-time against App State.

How It Happened

Wake Forest's defensive attack forced App State into several turnovers in the opening minutes of play as both teams searched for their footing.
With just over five minutes left in the first quarter, junior Rachel Thetford took the ball off the stick of a Mountaineer attacker to lead to an outlet opportunity for the Demon Deacon offense.
- The play led to Wake's first corner of the match with freshman Lauren Storey ripping a shot that forced the App State keeper into action and earned the Deacs another corner.
- After inserting the corner, freshman Mia Montag found herself with the ball off a rebound and beat the App State goalie for her first career goal to put Wake Forest up 1-0.
Wake Forest stayed on the front foot with their third corner early in the second quarter, generating a pair of shots on goal by sophomore Mia Schoenbeck.
The Deacs dominated possession throughout the first 10 minutes of the second period as they searched for their second goal of the match.
Thetford's strong play in the match continued, finding herself one-on-one against the Mountaineer goalie, she sent a shot just wide with under three minutes left in the half.
With just over two minutes left, graduate transfer Anabelle Brodeur found sophomore Flo Tuthill inside of the circle.
- Tuthill beat the App State keeper with a shot to the left side of the cage to double the Wake Forest lead.
The Deacs led at half 2-0 without allowing App State to take a shot through 30 minutes of play.
Coming out of the half strong, Wake generated their fourth corner of the match.
- With Montag on the insert, sophomore Ava Moore ripped a shot that resulted in a penalty stroke for Wake Forest.
  - Taking the penalty for Wake, freshmen Lauren Storey converted from the spot for her first career goal to make it 3-0 in favor of the Deacs.
Just two minutes into the final quarter of play, senior Brooke McCusker found Storey open inside the circle.
- The Auckland, New Zealand native fired into the top part of the cage for her second goal of the match to extend the Wake Forest lead to 4-0 early in the final quarter of play.
Playing a nearly flawless match, the Wake Forest defense surrendered their first corner to App State 49 minutes into play.
- Moore blocked the App State attempt on the Mountaineer's first shot of the night.
The Deacs stayed on the attack with a pair of corners late in the match.
- With a pair of shots on goal, Moore forced the App goalkeeper into two saves off the Wake Forest corners.
App State cut the lead to three on their first shot on goal of the match with just 1:31 left.
The Deacs answered with two more penalty corners in the final minute of play.
Wake Forest captured their first win of the season, 4-1.

Quotables
"Incredibly happy and excited for this group. It was just a matter of time before we created this kind of attack. However, I want to be specific that our defensive action made all the difference in this game. We put App State under a tremendous amount of pressure and created a lot of opportunities on the counters. Everyone saw the skills that we were trying to adapt in our training sessions this past week and it played out tonight. We stayed aggressive throughout all four quarters and I'm proud of the effort that was put forth by our group tonight." - head coach Jen Averill

Up Next
Wake Forest is home against VCU on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Kentner Stadium. Participants from this summer's camps will be able to participate in postgame autographs and will receive free autograph posters to be signed by their favorite Demon Deacons. Fans can tune in live to ACCNX for all the action on Sunday.

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Team Stats

Lauren Storey

Mia Montag

Florence Tuthill

Brooke McCusker

Players Mentioned

Anabelle Brodeur

Brooke McCusker

Mia Montag

Ava Moore

Mia Schoenbeck

Lauren Storey

Rachel Thetford

Wake Forest Athletics