NEWARK, Del. - Senior forward Abbey Ripley picked a great time to collect her first career hat trick as the Lancers field hockey team downed Dartmouth 5-1 in a neutral site bout from the field of reigning National Champion Delaware Sunday morning.

After Longwood (4-0) took a 1-0 lead into the break behind Ripley's first goal, she added two more in the second half to push the Lancer lead to the final tally of 5-1. Ripley's first strike came in the late stages of the first half on a perfect feed from Leonie Verstraete before Ripley took care of the rest.

"I'm super excited, and I couldn't have done it without my teammates," said Ripley, who is now tied for the team-lead in goals this season. "It feels really great to get it during my senior year."

"We moved the ball around effectively," said 10th-year head coach Iain Byers, who has led the Lancers to a perfect 4-0 start for the first time in over 15 seasons. "Scoring goals is often a sign of more than just good forwards – it's getting the ball up to the net in a great fashion and creating good opportunities"

"We're excited to be 4-0, but it comes from hard work. We're going to keep stressing that to the team," Byers said. "It's not luck. It's not because we deserve it. It comes because we're working hard"

Ripley and the Lancer offense kept the pressure dialed up as they sent a season-high 21 shots. 16 on goal leading to their season-best five goal outburst.

"We worked really hard this week and I think we did a good job of listening to what our coaches had to say and we really adapted to Dartmouth's style," Ripley said. "I think we executed really well and made the right adjustments."

A native of Midlothian, Va., Ripley found the backboard two more times in the second half - her first finishing an opportunity created from Lil-Sophie Achterwinter's blocked shot, her second coming in a breakaway 2-on-1 with the goalie in the final moments as she took another perfect feed, this one from fellow senior Brenna Kinzel.

"We're happy and super excited for Abbey," Byers said. "She worked hard on her skillset and those were the skills she used today and throughout practice this week. It was a good performance and 4-0 is a good start."

After collecting back-to-back shutouts, Katie Wyman was strong once again for the blue and white in net as she picked up a save while facing only six shots from the Big Green all morning. She now has a career record of 8-2 as a Lancer goalkeeper and boasts a MAC-best two shutouts, 0.64 goals against average and .833 save percentage.

Verstraete, who picked up her third goal of the season, took the ball the length of the field and fired a back-handed rocket past Dartmouth's Hailey Valerio to stretch the Lancer lead to 2-0 at the time. Her goal began a barrage of five second-half goals from the Lancers and Big Green after just one goal in the opening 35 minutes. With the goal Sunday morning, Verstraete and Ripley now sit tied for the team lead in goals with three each.

Freshman defender and birthday girl Cammy Toddy notched her first career goal with a deflection from Verstraete's rocket to the far-right post, the second of two assists from Verstrate. 

The Lancers return home for a bout with Route 460-rival Liberty Friday night before the only road trip in September when Longwood heads to Davison on Sept. 10. Game time against the Flames is set for 5 p.m. from the friendly confines of Elizabeth Burger Jackson Field.

"We're really looking forward to the rest of the season after starting 4-0," Ripley said. "This is a big step for us, and we want to keep the momentum for the rest of the season."

#GoWood