No. 17 JMU Advances In CAA Tourney On 10-7 Win Over No. 3 Seed Delaware

Friday, May 1

Newark, Del.

7 p.m.

James Madison University

14-4

Delaware

11-7

Delaware

James Madison

Photo by: Photography/JMU Athletics Communications

No. 17 JMU Advances In CAA Tourney On 10-7 Win Over No. 3 Seed Delaware

5/1/2015 10:08:00 PM | Lacrosse

Box Score

NEWARK, Del. – No. 17 James Madison lacrosse team scored the final four goals of the game and shut out third-seeded Delaware for the final 24 minutes of the match to earn a 10-7 victory in the Colonial Athletic Association semifinals, May 1. With the victory, the Dukes improved to 14-4 and moved on to Sunday's championship game against No. 4 seed Towson at 1 p.m. in Newark, Del. The Blue Hens finished the year at 11-7.

The two teams were even on overall shots at 16 each, while senior goalie Schylar Healy made five saves as compared to three for the UD keepers combined. Delaware did hold an 11-8 advantage on draw controls, but also struggled to convert free positions, going 0-for-3 while JMU hit on all three of its tries. The Dukes also held a strong 12-8 margin on ground balls.

"I'm just really pleased with my team and their play tonight," Head Coach Shelley Klaes-Bawcombe said. "We really came together and locked it down in the second half. The draw control battle was huge tonight and we finally found a solution for her. We have so many threats on the offensive end and we showed composure on the ball when it counted."

The two teams traded goals to open the match, with JMU getting on the board first on senior midfielder Ali Curwin's goal off a junior midfielder Jaci Gordon feed to lead 1-0 less than five minutes in. The two teams exchanged goals to 2-2 until Gordon pumped in back-to-back goals to make it 4-2 with 9:05 to play in the first half. Delaware answered with two consecutive of its own to knot the game at four before Leah Monticello scored with 31 seconds to play in the half and give JMU a 5-4 advantage at the break.

Delaware scored two straight to open the second half to take its first lead of the match at 6-5. The two teams exchanged goals and the host Blue Hens led 7-6 with 24:08 to go in the game. In a very similar fashion to the first meeting in that the JMU defense shut down the UD offense for the final 18 minutes, this time is was 24 minutes as the Dukes got the final four goals of the game. Junior midfielder Taylor Gress tied it less than 50 seconds later and senior attacker Stephanie Finley got the eventual game winner with 22:16 to play. Redshirt-sophomore attacker Betsy Angel gave Madison a two-goal lead on a feed from Gress with 14:38 to play, with Gress getting the final goal with more than 11 minutes to play.

Gordon led the Dukes with three goals and one assist, while Gress finished with two goals and an assist. Delaware was led by Shannon Hawley's two goals as five other Blue Hens put scores on the board.

This will be the sixth time that Head Coach Shelley Klaes-Bawcombe has led the Dukes to the CAA Tournament Championship game, having won it twice in 2010 and 2011. Last year, the Dukes and Tigers met for the CAA title and Towson won it in overtime 12-11 to earn the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. JMU did defeat Towson earlier this season at University Park in a 15-9 victory that saw the Dukes score 12 unanswered goals.