James Madison used an 8-1 second-half scoring run to pull away to an insurmountable lead in a 15-8 win over Drexel in Colonial Athletic Association women’s lacrosse Sunday afternoon at the JMU Lacrosse Complex.
The defending two-time CAA champion Dukes improved to 3-0 in league play and 7-5 overall as JMU posted its third straight win.
Drexel dropped to 8-4 overall and 1-2 in the CAA.
The Dukes remained tied for first place in the CAA with Towson, which beat Old Dominion 9-7 Sunday afternoon to also improve to 3-0 in league play.
JMU senior Monica Zabel (Ellicott City, Md./Mt. Hebron) scored a career-high four goals and added three assists for a season-high seven points. She had three goals and an assist in the Dukes’ go-ahead scoring outburst in the second period.
Dukes’ redshirt junior Casey Ancarrow (Jarrettsville, Md./John Carroll) added three goals and two assists, and senior Caitlin McHugh (Westminster, Md./Mercy) also scored three times.
Drexel was led by junior Kelli Joran (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown East) with three goals and redshirt freshman Alissa Watts (West Long Branch, N.J./Shore Regional) with two scores.
Drexel scored the game’s opening goal and the game was tied three times in the opening 16:44.
After Joran scored the first three goals to tie the game at 3-3 with 13:16 left, JMU tallied three unanswered goals to build a 6-3 lead with 4:35 to play in the first half.
Sophomore Amy Roguski (Sykesville, Md./Liberty), senior Ashley Kimener (Oakton, Va./Oakton) and redshirt freshman Kaci Starkloff (Bel Air, Md./Bel Air) netted the Dukes’ goals that gave JMU its three-goal advantage.
But Drexel came storming back, with Joran scoring twice in the final 3:30, to close the gap to 6-5 at intermission. Then an unassisted goal by junior Alyse Maiden (Washington Township, N.J./Washington Township) 2:50 into the second period tied the game at 6-6.
The Dukes responded by scoring three times in less than three minutes. Zabel tallied back-to-back goals in a span of 1:19, and McHugh put JMU ahead 9-6 with an unassisted goal with 23:44 to go.
After Watts scored for the Dragons at 17:49, the Dukes rattled off five goals in just 4:15. Ancarrow scored three of the first four, and Zabel assisted Ancarrow’s first score and netted the other goal. McHugh finished off the run by converting a free-position attempt with 11:02 to go to put the Dukes up 14-7, a lead that proved too big for Drexel to overcome.
Statistical leaders for the Dukes included freshman Ali Curwin (Pittsford, N.Y./Pittsford Sutherland) with a game-high four ground balls. Roguski and McHugh each also snagged three GBs.
Ancarrow and Zabel tied for game honors with four draw controls apiece.
JMU out-shot Drexel 36-21 and held a 17-8 advantage in draw conrols and a 15-9 lead in ground balls.
“The key to the game was hustle stats. We did a good job on focusing on draw controls and ground balls,” said JMU Head Coach Shelley Klaes-Bawcombe.
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