#4 Dukes Surge Past #17 Virginia, 15-10, in Non-Conference Finale

Wednesday, April 18

Charlottesville, Va.

7 p.m.

James Madison University

14-1

Virginia

9-7

James Madison

Virginia

#4 Dukes Surge Past #17 Virginia, 15-10, in Non-Conference Finale

4/18/2018 10:20:00 PM | Lacrosse

Box Score Box Score Re-Watch Game (ESPN3)

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Three James Madison players registered hat tricks and a hot start led the fourth-ranked Dukes to a 15-10 triumph at No. 17 Virginia on Wednesday night at Klockner Stadium.

The Dukes improved to 14-1 on the year after producing their first win over U.Va. since 2011 and the first triumph in Charlottesville in eight years. The Cavaliers dropped to 9-7 on the season. The 14-1 start is JMU's best 15-game start in school history, besting the 13-2 starts from 2010 and 1981.

Senior attacker Kristen Gaudian scored a game-high five goals, to go with three draw controls. She also scored one free position goal to set a JMU single-season record with 18 free-position goals. Junior attacker Hanna Haven scored four goals, while senior midfielder Haley Warden had three goals, to go with three draw controls and career highs of five caused turnovers and seven ground balls.

Between the pipes, redshirt freshman Molly Dougherty made a career-best 12 saves to move to 6-0 on the year. Defensively, senior Rebecca Tooker and junior Caroline Sdanowich each had three caused turnovers while senior Corinne Schmidt had two. Four players in all had at least three ground balls.

Virginia was led by Kasey Behr, who had three goals, three caused turnovers and three draws. Avery Shoemaker and Sammy Mueller each scored twice, while Rachel Vander Kolk made 10 saves in net.

In a game that JMU led the whole way, shots were tied 30-30, as the Cavaliers held a 25-21 shots on goal advantage. U.Va. also held a slight advantage on the draw control (14-13) and ground balls (25-21), while the Dukes had the lead in caused turnovers (13-8).

JMU stormed out of the gates, scoring the game's first five goals, holding Virginia scoreless for more than 20 minutes. After back-to-back Cavalier goals, Warden's goal with seven seconds left gave the visitors a 6-2 halftime advantage.

Gaudian netted two straight goals in a 12-second span early in the second, extending the lead to 8-2, before the 'Hoos scored four of five to make it 9-6 with 24:25 to play. JMU answered with four straight to make it 13-6 with just under 13 minutes to go, but U.Va. never drew closer than four down the stretch.

QUOTING COACH SHELLEY
"Our mental resilience was excellent today," Head Coach Shelley Klaes-Bawcombe said. "We had a bunch of calls go Virginia's way and we just responded on the next play. Mental toughness, solid defensive effort, strong goaltending and scoring goals when we needed it was the ticket to our success tonight."

DUKES GO 3-0 VERSUS ACC IN REGULAR SEASON
JMU improved to 14-1 overall but also completed the regular-season sweep of its three Atlantic Coast Conference foes. JMU scored at least 15 goals in all three outings, beating No. 3 North Carolina 15-14 and Virginia Tech 16-11 at home before surging past Virginia 15-10 tonight.

HALEY HUSTLE
Haley Warden was lights out in JMU's win at Virginia, as she tallied 15 hustle stats while also producing a hat trick. In addition to her three goals, Warden registered career highs of five caused turnovers and seven ground balls, to go with three draw controls. She needs just three more caused turnovers to break JMU's all-time record of 110.

UP NEXT
JMU hosts Hofstra on Sunday, April 22 for Senior Day. The opening draw is set for noon at Sentara Park and the game can be seen on MadiZONE HD SportsNet.