For the past two years the Virginia women's lacrosse team has defeated James Madison in close, low-scoring games. Last night they proved they can also blow out the Dukes, winning 17-6 at Klöckner Stadium.
Senior Tyler Leachman, junior Kate Breslin and freshman Blair Weymouth each had at least three goals to lead a balanced Cavalier attack to a season-high 17 goals. On the other end of the field, Player of the Week Jessy Morgan and Rookie of the Week Jen Holden anchored a stalwart defense that held the Dukes to only two goals in the first half.
"We came off really strong," Breslin said. "I think the attack and the defense played really well together, and the transition today was clicking."
The Cavaliers dominated the first half of play, paced by Weymouth's six points, and took a commanding 9-2 lead heading into halftime.
JMU came out in the second half with an intensity befitting the fierce rivalry between the two Virginia schools, and briefly threatened to mount a comeback against the Cavaliers. The two teams traded early goals, but the Dukes scored two more quick goals to cut the lead to five.
After the consecutive goals, Virginia coach Julie Myers called timeout to rally her team.
"I think our kids did a nice job of really responding" to the JMU goals, Myers said. "We scored in the opening clip too, but our defense was just kind of snoozing a little bit. We were running frantic, like we weren't expecting them to try to score quick goals."
When play resumed, the Cavaliers played with renewed focus. Whitaker Hargerman's free position shot touched off a 4-0 run to give the Cavaliers a 14-5 lead and effectively kill the Dukes' rally. Finding itself down by nine in the second half, JMU never mounted a serious challenge and only managed one more goal the rest of the night.
"We just realized we were losing our focus after the consecutive goals," Breslin said. "In timeout we just realized we needed to regroup and get everything together. I think we came out after our timeout real strong and we were able to put the pieces together."
Wednesday's game marked the third time this season the two teams have met on the field, but it is the only one that will count. The previous contests were both scrimmages, and although those results will not appear on the records, they provided valuable scouting opportunities for Virginia and contributed to the Cavalier game plan.
"We've scrimmaged them a couple of times this year, and we were able to scout them," Myers said. "I think Madison has a couple of really good players, so we kind of saw what some of their defensive weaknesses were going to be from scrimmaging and scouting."
The win against JMU continued Virginia's recent dominance as they eclipsed 16 goals for the third game in a row, while holding the opposition to less than five goals per game.
"I think we've just been on a great run lately," Breslin said. "We've just been focusing in our practices and making the most of our time on the practice field."
The Cavaliers will return to action Saturday with an ACC showdown against conference rival Duke in Durham, N.C.
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