HARRISONBURG, Va. (JMU Athletics) – #14 James Madison lacrosse cut a seven-goal halftime deficit to just two in the fourth quarter, but saw its rally fall short to #12 Virginia, 14-11, in a top-15 matchup at Sentara Park on Wednesday night.

Savannah Derey led JMU (5-3, 1-0 AAC) with four goals while Olivia Mattis and Olivia Matthews netted two goals apiece. Maddie Epke registered one goal, two assists, and nine draw controls while Brianne Mennella provided a career-high three assists to go along with one score.

Adanya Moyer made her fourth start in the cage and made 11 saves on 28 shots faced. The Dukes held a 15-9 edge in turnovers and trailed just one shy in shots (28-27) and ground balls (16-15), but lost the draw battle for just the second time this season (18-11).

Kate Galica, Payton Sfreddo, and Addi Foster each recorded hat tricks to lead Virginia (6-3, 2-2 ACC). Mel Josephson made the start in the cage and earned the win for the Cavaliers, making ten saves in three quarters played.

How it Happened
First Quarter – Virginia 4, James Madison 2
• Virginia capitalized on a takeaway and opportunity from the eight-meter to lead 2-0 just 75 seconds into the game.
• Derey got JMU on the board off an assist from Maggie Clark to make it 2-1 at the 11:40 mark of the period.
• The Dukes would take five more shots (three on goal) but found only one more score off a free-position from Derey at the 4:32 mark and trailed 4-2 after one.

Second Quarter – Virginia 10, James Madison 3
• The Cavs opened the second stanza in similar fashion to the first, going on a 5-0 run before Matthews tallied JMU’s lone goal of the quarter with 3:03 to go before halftime. JMU saw six of its seven shots saved in the quarter by Josephson.

Third Quarter – Virginia 12, James Madison 9
• The Dukes took care of the ball while Virginia coughed up four turnovers in the third frame, allowing a 5-1 JMU run to make it just a three-point game at 11-8 with 7:55 to go in the third.
• Virginia responded with a goal to stretch the lead back to four, but Derey would punch in another score with 27 seconds to go in the period to make it 12-9 headed to the fourth.

Fourth Quarter – Virginia 14, James Madison 11
• A man-up goal from Chloe Bleckley cut the Virginia lead to just two at 12-10 with 13:34 left to play. Scoring stalled for the next several minutes before Virginia found another goal with 6:25 to go.
• Mattis brought it back to a two-point deficit with just under five minutes to play.
• Matthews earned a free-position opportunity with 2:03 to play, but couldn’t convert as Virginia made the defensive stand to run out the clock for the win.

Game notes
• Savannah Derey recorded her third hat trick of the season.
• Maddie Epke has scored in 27 straight games, while Chloe Bleckley continued her streak of recording at least a point in every game this season.
• JMU was outdrawn for just the second time this season, and is 1-1 in games in which it was outdrawn.

Up Next
#14 JMU will return to action and conference play on Saturday, March 22 when it welcomes Old Dominion to Sentara Park. The opening draw is set for 1 p.m.

— JMU Athletics —