Although the temperature dropped significantly during the later part of the day, the Virginia women's lacrosse team stayed hot in last night's 15-7 win over James Madison University. The victory was the fourth consecutive for the No. 4 Cavaliers (9-2), who had been knocked out of the NCAA Tournament the past two years by the No. 18 Dukes (6-6).
"JMU really put forth a solid effort," Virginia coach Julie Myers said. "We were able to score a lot of goals, but it was a lot of work to get to those goals."
The contest, taking place at Klockner Stadium, started off with a quick JMU attack. Midfielder Kristen Dinisio got the Dukes on the board with less than two minutes gone by in the game, an unfamiliar situation for Virginia.
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"Our coach touched on the fact that when [the Dukes] started going up, they didn't have more than a two-goal sequence," senior midfielder Molly Cangemi said. "We're working on not getting behind. Last year we'd get down and then we'd have to dig ourselves out. Staying in the game mentally is a big thing with our team this year."
It took a few minutes, but the Cavaliers countered with scoring of their own. Unassisted, with just under eight minutes gone by, freshman attacker Amy Appelt scored the first in what would be an onslaught of six consecutive Virginia goals. Senior midfielder Gina Sambus followed up two and half minutes later by scoring on an assist from junior midfielder Lauren Aumiller.
Providing more veteran leadership for the Cavaliers, Cangemi scored back-to-back goals within half a minute of each other to put Virginia up 4-1. Both tallies were unassisted, and they were only a fraction of her team-leading five goals.
Aumiller scored again on an assist from Sambus. Appelt finished up the scoring run to give Virginia a 6-1 lead with 13:40 remaining in the first half, a run that was characterized by a quick running game and execution on fast-break opportunities.
"We have been very successful with our fast-break," Cangemi said.
JMU midfielder Lisa Staedt and attacker McNevin Molloy showed that the Dukes would not succumb to the deficit, each scoring an unassisted goal over the next three minutes. The Cavaliers bounced back with two goals of their own, by freshman attacker Cary Chasney and sophomore midfielder Morgan Thalenberg. A last-minute JMU goal at the top of the net made the halftime score 8-4.
To open the second half Virginia came through with a quick goal as Cangemi ran the attack, and neither team scored for the following nine minutes before the Dukes knocked down two consecutive goals.
The Cavaliers countered again with two of their own, but Staedt reduced the deficit to four with 11:20 to go. Twenty seconds later, Chasney ran in for a goal, keying Virginia's 4-0 scoring run to end the game, taking apart the defense of a JMU team that had pressed the Cavs' on both ends of the field.
If the Dukes "keep playing like that, my guess is they've got a good chance at knocking somebody off," Chasney said.
Although the Cavaliers were satisfied with their victory, they left the door open for further growth as a team.
"I don't even think we've reached our potential," Cangemi said. "We look forward to each practice. We've got such a great mix of young and experienced players, and everybody's got somebody's back."
The Cavaliers will try to further themselves when they travel to Duke this Saturday.
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