Women's Lacrosse Wins CAA Championship

The JMU Women's Lacrosse team beat Hofstra on Saturday, 10-6, to win the CAA Championship for the seventh time in 14 years. This also gave them the CAA's autobid to the NCAA tournament, which they'll be attending for the 10th time. They made it to the semifinals in 2000 and the quarterfinals in 1998, 1999, 2001, and 2004. The Dukes also made it into the tournament in 1995, 1997, 2003, and 2006. This year will add to a decade and a half of incredible play by JMU Women's Lacrosse.

Some impressive stats compiled this year by the Dukes:

• Started the season dominating VT, 16-3
• Ranked #7 in the nation at the end of the season
• Seeded 5th in the NCAA tournament
• 16-2 record, only losing to #13 Loyola by 4 (8-12) and #1 Maryland by 1 (7-8)
• 16 wins ties the school record
• Beat Yale by 6, Princeton by 1, UR by 13, #4 UVA by 1
• Went undefeated in CAA play, which includes #8, #16, and #24
• Won CAA tourney games by 3 and 4 points
• 233 goals for vs. 129 against...almost a 2-1 ratio
• One of only two teams to go undefeated on the road this season

The Dukes will start the NCAA tournament at home on Saturday, May 15, at 1pm against Stanford. Stanford lost 10-9 at Towson on March 28 and beat Hofstra 14-13 in three overtimes at home on March 31. Stanford is coming in ranked 15th in the nation with a 15-5 record. Their 5 losses were to #11 Syracuse (7-16), #2 Northwestern (11-18), #1 Maryland (8-20), #8 Towson (9-10), and Denver (12-17). Stanford is 3-4 on the road this season. The only road wins were against 0-14 Fresno State (19-4), 8-10 California (12-7) and 13-5 Denver (11-10 2OT). Between Stanford's poor play on the road, their loss to Towson, triple-overtime win at home against Hofstra, and their bad loss to Maryland, who only beat us by one, makes me believe that getting Stanford to play at JMU is a great draw for the Dukes and gives them a great chance to move on to the next round.

This is the sixth time JMU is hosting a first-round NCAA game. The Dukes are undefeated so far in first-round home games (5-0). JMU has also beaten Stanford in the two previous contests where they have faced each other: once in 2007 in Palo Alto and then in Harrisonburg in 2008, both 10-9 wins.

Their possible path to the National Championship would be (using national ranking):
First Round: #15 Stanford (15-5), May 15
Quarterfinals: #9 Georgetown (13-5) or #11 Syracuse (13-6), May 22-23
Semifinals: Most likely #1 Maryland (18-1) or #6 Penn (14-3), May 28
Championship: Most likely #2 Northwestern (17-1) or #3 UNC (15-2),  May 30

JMU had a moment of silence before the game in memory of Yeardley Love - the University of Virginia lacrosse player who was found dead last week - and wore orange wrist bands with her initials on them, as it did before its semifinal win on Thursday. Many of Hofstra's players had Love's last name written on their legs. -DNR

JMUSports.com LACROSSE #5 SEED IN NCAA TOURNEY, TO HOST STANFORD SATURDAY
Windbreaker Pictures of W&M Game
Windbreaker Pictures of Hofstra Game

Women's Lacrosse Moves Up To #17

The JMU Women's Lacrosse team (2-0) moved up to #17 in the coach's poll this week and is ranked #14 by LaxPower's computer ranking system. We also have the #15 RPI in the nation. While it is still early on for polls like this to be too accurate, with good wins over Virginia Tech and Yale, this year is definitely looking like a good year for the Lady Dukes. Wednesday's match against Longwood was postponed due to some winter weather, but they will play next Tuesday in Orlando, Fla. against #11 Notre Dame.

Women's Lacrosse Takes Yale After Strong Start

The Lady Dukes dominated the first half of play against Yale in this early Saturday afternoon game, going on to win 10-7. Sidenote: the Lady Dukes decided to just wear their regular shorts with no leggings underneath, unlike Yale (which is over 300 miles north of Harrisonburg), who had only a couple players not wearing some sort of long pants. It was in the 20's and there were strong winds. I had a couple layers on and I was still cold. Not sure if they were moving faster to stay warm or if the Bulldogs were intimidated, but it certainly worked out for the Dukes in the first half. They scored twice in the first 2:27 and would score four more times before Yale would get on the board. JMU was in control of the ball for most of the first half and was able to attack for a majority of the time. Redshirt junior Kim Griffin was the first to score, followed by freshman Monica Zable. Sophomore Mary Kate Lomady then scored two consecutive shots, followed by freshman Casey Ancarrow (who won CAA ROW honors after her performance against VT) making two straight putting the Dukes up 6-0. With 3:21 left in the first half, Yale was finally able to get their first goal. JMU senior Jaime Dardine answered back though with only 3.5 seconds left in the half taking the lead back up to six. The amount of time attacking and strong defense can be seen just looking at the stats with the Dukes leading shots on goal 12 to 4.

The second half started off with Griffin scoring again a little over 5 minutes in, but the rest of the game wouldn't go as well for the Dukes. In the final 18:24 of the game, the Bulldogs would outscore the Dukes 6-2. Yale was very accurate in the second half, making 6 of their 11 shots on the goal, while JMU was only able to score on 2 of their 8 shots in the second half. Freshman Ashley Kimener and Griffin would score the final two goals for the Dukes.

After beating Virginia Tech 14-9, this win takes JMU's record to 2-0 and dropped Yale to 0-2. The Dukes are now ranked #14 by LaxPower just behind UNC. JMU will travel to Longwood on Wednesday to take on the Lancers.

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