No. 13 James Madison scored the first nine goals of the game and never looked back en route to an 18-5 non-conference lacrosse victory over visiting Liberty. With the victory in the first-ever meeting between the two programs, the Dukes improved to 8-3 on the season, while the Lady Flames fell to 2-7 overall.
Senior attacker Stephanie Finley led JMU with four goals, three assists, two draw controls and one ground ball, while redshirt-sophomore attacker Alison Curwin had five goals, one assist, four draw controls, one caused turnover and one ground ball. Overall, eight Dukes scored and eight had assists, as JMU outshot the visitors 42-17 on the night, including 27-7 in the first half and 28-14 shots on goal. Senior goalkeeper Schylar Healy had nine saves while allowing just five goals in earning her eighth win of the season.
For Liberty, Katy Pridemore had three of the five goals on the night, with keeper Juliann Elmer making 10 saves in the loss.
The Dukes got the scoring going in the first two minutes on a goal from Finley and kept it rolling, scoring eight more times before the visitors broke the ice with 9:25 to go in the first half. Following that goal, JMU scored three of the next four goals to go into the halftime break with a 12-2 advantage.
With the second half played with a running clock a majority of the time due to the NCAA’s 10-goal difference rule, the Dukes continued to maintain its control of the match by attacking the Liberty zone defense and outscoring LU 6-3 in the shortened second half. This allowed JMU to play a variety of players in the second half, which included freshman midfielder Shannon Quinlan getting her first collegiate goal with 4:19 to play on an assist from Curwin.
Madison gets a break now to prepare for its Colonial Athletic Association portion of the season, as it is off until Friday, April 3 when the Dukes travel to Hofstra for a 7 p.m. match.
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Chris Graham
