Women's Lacrosse Falls at James Madison, 17-7

Friday, April 18

Harrisonburg, Va.

5:00 p.m.

Drexel University

James Madison

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Women's Lacrosse Falls at James Madison, 17-7

4/18/2014 6:56:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

BOX SCORE

HARRISONBURG, Va. – The first ten minutes of the game have been critical for the Drexel women's lacrosse team all season long. In several of their losses, the Dragons fell into big early holes and found themselves unable to recover. At the start of each of their recent victories, Drexel was the team building a large early lead. On Friday afternoon at James Madison, the Dragons' old troubles came back to haunt them as the Dukes built up an 9-0 lead in the game's first 13:10 and went onto a 17-7 victory.

James Madison (8-6, 3-1) won eight of the game's first nine draw controls and had six big ground balls during its opening sequence before the Dragons got on the board on an Emily Duffey goal with 15:59 remaining in the first half. Drexel (6-8, 1-2) got some good looks at the goal before the Duffey goal, but stops from James Madison goalkeeper Schylar Healy and the Dukes' overall ability to keep the ball out of the Dragons' sticks allowed the Dukes to build their early advantage.

Emily Duffey had three goals for the Dragons, her third hat trick and second-straight. Kelly Palace added two goals. Stephanie Finley and Taylor Gress had four goals each to lead the Dukes. Seventeen of the Dragons' 20 shots went on goal, but Healy came up with 10 saves. Teresha Bradley stifled nine James Madison shots for her part, including several at point blank range in the second half.

Once Drexel got its first goal, the Dragons settled themselves and began to chip away at the James Madison lead. Drexel won five of the game's next six draw controls and netted four goals, including two by Kelly Palace. The senior, who leads Drexel in scoring this season, has now tallied multiple goals in each of the Dragons' last four contests, and 11 games overall this year.

Trailing 11-4 in the final minute of the first half, Drexel had an opportunity to cut into the James Madison lead even further before halftime. However, a free position shot was deflected wide and, after attempting to hold for the half's final shot, Drexel could not get into its offense as the clock expired without the Dragons taking a shot.

The James Madison defense kept Drexel from putting much together in the second half. Duffey, who had two previous hat tricks on the season including in the Dragons' most recent game against Monmouth, scored the first two Drexel goals of the half, just over six minutes into the period and then again with 11:26 to play. Caroline Thiele assisted on the latter after forcing Healy to turn the ball over 20 yards from the Dukes' net. Joelle Hartke added a goal with 7:46 remaining, taking an Amanda Norcini feed off a free position and peppering the corner of the net. That extended Hartke's goal-scoring streak to six games.

In the loss, senior captain Amanda Norcini had two assists, five draw controls and three ground balls as well as a caused turnover. The draw controls matched her season high, and the caused turnover was her 30th of the season, setting a new Drexel single-season record. She broke a tie with Emily Hoesch and Katie Bradley, who had 29 caused turnovers in 2006 and 2008, respectively.

Drexel will play its final road game of the season when it next takes the field on Sunday afternoon. The Dragons will remain in the state of Virginia and will visit William & Mary on Sunday at 1:00 p.m.