To view original article, click here - written by Village NetMedia Associate Sports Director Mark Haskell 

Standish — Ashley Geel was a standout three-sport student-athlete at Georges Valley High School and then transported her athletic prowess to the collegiate level at St. Joseph's College, where she has continued to excel on the basketball court the past four years.

Geel was a tremendous interior defender, rebounder and scorer for the Buccaneers and also for the Monks, which is evident by the 6-foot-1-inch senior center's most recent accomplishment.

Geel scored her 1,000th career point Feb. 7 and became the 20th player in the history of the Monks' program to accomplish the feat in an 88-39 victory over Pine Manor College of Chestnut Hill, Mass. at the Alfond Center in Standish. She is the first St. Joseph's women's basketball player to reach the 1,000-point plateau since former teammate Carolyn Freeman did so during the 2009-10 campaign.

The former Georges Valley softball, basketball and soccer standout entered Tuesday's contest at 984 points and needed 16 to reach the mark. She ended the game with 16 points and 10 rebounds, her fifth double-double of the season and the 14th of her career.

"It's pretty sweet," said Geel of reaching the milestone. "I still haven't come down off my high yet. It's kind of cool because on campus everyone knows everyone, so everywhere I go people are saying, 'congrats.' " This morning in my class my teacher announced it to the whole class. You'd thing it'd be kind of embarrassing, but I actually loved it."

Geel knew how close she was to earning her 1,000th point during the second half of Tuesday's game, but lost track in the midst of the competition.

"I was like hyperventilating and just getting so nervous," she said. "Every time I would score the crowd would just go wild."

Geel finally netted the historic hoop with 11:07 remaining as coach Mike McDevitt immediately called timeout to recognize the accomplishment, as Geel received a standing ovation from the Monk fans.

"They announced it and [coach McDevitt] stood with me and the ball so people could take pictures and stuff," said Geel. "It was sweet. Most of my family was there too, which was pretty cool."

Coincidentally, Geel was not even the first member of her extended family to recently reach the historic 1,000 career point milestone. Geel's cousin, Jordan Knowlton, a junior at Camden Hills, netted her 1,000th point Feb. 3 during a home game in Rockport against Oceanside.

Knowtlon's family had four shirts made up for her accomplishment — one shirt bearing a 1 and the other three each bearing zeroes — for her home game against the Mariners. Those shirts were then passed on to the Geel family, who put them on once Geel hit the historic mark.

"I didn't know she was that close and then I was talking to her last week before she got it and I was like, 'How many are you away?' and she said, '24,' and I was like, 'Oh, I'm 21,' this is so cool. You see kids get it but the fact that two people in the same family get it in a week? You don't see that."

Geel is hardly a one-trick pony for the Monks as she also registered two blocked shots in the game and is tied with men's basketball standout Tom Ollman (Class of 1988) for the school's all-time record for blocks with 190.

The Monks, who play in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference, are now 16-6 and undefeated (10-0) in league play this season.

The 2011 second team All-GNAC selection currently has 628 career rebounds and is the eighth player in program with 1,000 points and 600 rebounds. Geel also joins Mary Lou Kimball (Class of 1989) as the only two players to register at least 1,000 points, 600 rebounds and 100 blocks in their career at St. Joseph's.

Geel also played softball for the Monks her freshman year.

Geel was a three-sport athlete for GVHS. Geel played goalie for the soccer team and was part of two undefeated regular seasons and three Mountain Valley Conference championships, while leading the Bucs to two playoff berths on the basketball court as the team's center. On the softball field, Geel played first base and helped lead the Bucs to two state Class C championships. She also was a two-time local newspaper athlete of the year.

Geel scored 938 points during her high school career for the Bucs — 62 points shy of the coveted mark she recently hit for the Monks. While she admitted she still thinks about the fact she came up short of that historic mark at Georges Valley, reaching 1,000 at the collegiate level was "sweet."

"I know here there's going to be a huge banner that goes up and my name is going to be on it forever," she said. "It's going to be in the record books and we're going to remember it, so it's pretty special."

Geel will graduate from St. Joseph's College on May 12 with a major in sports management and a minor in business administration.