Hempstead, NY – The Hofstra Field Hockey team (7-9, 1-2) will travel to Harrisonburg, Virginia on Sunday, October 22 to face the 16^th-ranked Dukes of James Madison (8-5, 1-1) in a key Colonial Athletic Association contest at the JMU Field Hockey Complex. Game time is noon.

The Pride, who are coming off a 7-3 victory over the Red Flash of Saint Francis University on Long island last Sunday, is chasing one of the four spots for the CAA Championships on November 3. Hofstra is currently in fifth place trailing 18^th-ranked William and Mary (11-4, 3-0), 11^th-ranked and defending national champions Delaware (10-4, 2-0), Northeastern (7-8, 2-1) and JMU.

The Pride face the Dukes this Sunday and Delaware at home next Friday before wrapping up the regular season at home against Drexel. Hofstra has dropped contests to Northeastern and William and Mary and would lose a head-to-head tiebreaker against either school. Drexel (5-10, 0-2) and Towson (1-13, 0-3) are the sixth and seventh teams in the standings.

Hofstra posted its best offensive output of the year and the programs' best since a 7-0 win at Colgate early in the 2016 season with their 7-3 victory over Saint Francis last weekend. Freshmen accounted for five of the seven Pride goals as Philine de Wolf bagged two goals, and Jordan Thompson, Anne van der Boomen and red-shirt freshman Madison Georgiana posted solo goals. Juniors Madison Warfel and Madison Sauve notched the other two goals. For Georgiana and Warfel it was their first goals of the year. Carys Swan made six saves in the Pride goal to record her seventh win of the year.

Freshman Frankie O'Brien recorded three assists to tie the school record and was named the CAA Rookie of the Week. De Wolf was named the GoHofstra.com Student-Athlete of the Week.

The Pride is led in scoring by Sauve with 10 goals and four assists for 24 points. De Wolf has eight goals and three assists while O'Brien now has four goals and a team-high seven assists. Graduate-student Marloes Schavemaker has six assists on the season. Swan has a 2.76 goals against average with 98 saves and a .710 save percentage.

James Madison enters Friday night's home game against Northeastern on a two-game losing skid after falling to Delaware (5-2) and current #13 Wake Forest (3-2) over the past two weekends. Sunday's game against the Dukes will be the 18^th in the series between Hofstra and JMU with the Dukes holding a 13-4 series advantage. JMU has won the last six meetings including a 2-1 decision on Long Island last season.

The Dukes are led in scoring by Miranda Rigg with nine goals, including three game-winners, and four assists for 22 points. In goal, Sara Kraeutler has a 1.74 goals against average and a .735 save percentage with 36 saves in nine games.

After the James Madison contest, Hofstra returns home for games against Delaware on Friday, October 27 and Drexel on October 29 for Senior Day.