Having lost a heartbreaker to then-No. 4 Princeton Saturday, the Virginia women's lacrosse team knew it had to dominate unranked James Madison from the outset.
The Dukes won the opening draw and attacked quickly, firing two shots within the first minute of the game. Virginia senior goalkeeper Kendall McBrearty made a save on the first shot, which skipped to her left, but JMU regained possession and shot wide again. The Cavaliers caused a turnover in front of their own goal and, after a JMU foul, began their attack. Senior defender and captain Claire Bordley carried the ball the length of the field and rifled a pass to sophomore midfielder Kaitlin Duff, who sent a shot into the back of the net less than two minutes into the game.
Early in Wednesday evening's contest at Klöckner Stadium, the Cavaliers' aggressive pace on offense dictated the game. Virginia (7-2, 2-1 ACC) scored the first five goals of the match, and JMU didn't make the scoreboard until the 10-minute mark of the first half.
"Against Princeton, we went down 3-0 and we wanted to win the first five and the last five minutes of the game," Bordley said. "We wanted to score three or four goals in the first five minutes."
Winning those first five minutes and scoring the first five goals renewed the team's confidence and momentum early on, Bordley said.
"That was definitely a big momentum-builder, because in a lot of games this season we dug ourselves a little hole by letting the opposing team score first," Bordley said. "That kind of set the momentum and gave us a little confidence, especially after the Princeton loss."
Virginia, in fact, had given up the first goal to its previous six opponents. The Cavaliers' strategy to control the beginning of the game was instrumental to their win, as even the best-laid plans can go awry. The Cavaliers could not control the last five minutes of the game.
After leading 7-3 at halftime and scoring the first four goals of the second half, Virginia had an 8-point advantage with 14 minutes to play. The Dukes took a timeout to regroup. Something sparked during that conversation; James Madison scored six goals down the stretch to draw the score to 11-9 with 2:13 to play. Leading the attack for the Dukes was junior attacker Jaime Dardine, who tallied three goals and an assist, leading JMU in scoring.
The team knew the Dukes would not give up easily, Virginia coach Julie Myers said, and Virginia countered the comeback by controlling the ball to finish the contest.
Although the Cavaliers gave up more goals than they would have liked, Myers said, Madison is a streaky and emotional team, something for which Virginia prepared.
"James Madison is a very feisty team and they will never die," Myers said. "They don't care what the score is; they're going to come at you. I think our girls dug deep when they needed to and came up with a couple of big plays."
James Madison coach Shelly Klaes-Bawcombe said she believes the team's resilient comeback exemplified its playing style more than its early struggles did.
"I thought that we were tentative and careless," Klaes-Bawcombe said about how her team began the game. "I feel like turnovers were a big problem today, and I thought we were a little unorganized in the first half with our defensive transition."
The Cavaliers' five goals to begin the game took the team out of its rhythm, Klaes-Bawcombe said, and it took the team a while to get back in step.
"Unfortunately we didn't play as a team until the end," Klaes-Bawcombe said. "That's the JMU team that practices every day."
Myers, however, had a response to the appearance of a different Dukes team at the end of the game: mixing up the lineup by drawing on the bench.
"We were trying to get the kids some attention and experience on game day," Myers said. "What it shows us is that we need to work on our depth. We do have lots of practices -- it's just the end of March -- so we'll get our depth better and get them more game-ready than what they were tonight."
Twenty-five of the 29 players on Virginia's roster saw game action. Junior attacker Jenny Hauser netted two goals and an assist in Virginia's 5-0 run at the beginning of the game and another goal in the second half. Sophomore midfielder Brittany Kalkstein added three goals, and Duff contributed two of her own. In total, nine players tallied points for Virginia.
Virginia now must learn from its lapse at the end of this game before Saturday's ACC matchup with No. 6 Duke. In Durham, the Cavaliers will find their sixth ranked opponent of the season.
The James Madison game "definitely brings back that we have the ability to do this," Hauser said. "We know that the next two days are going to be solely focused on Duke."
No. 4 Virginia will try to do just that Saturday afternoon at 1 against the Blue Devils.
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