HARRISONBURG, Va., March 15, 2008 -- James Madison defeated Richmond 11-10 in women's lacrosse Saturday afternoon at the JMU Lacrosse Complex. The Dukes are now 3-0 at home and improved their overall record to 3-3. Richmond dropped to 2-6 on the season.

Richmond opened the game with a score just 1:02 into the game by junior Lexie Marrocco (Duxbury, Mass./Duxbury) to put the Spiders up 1-0. It would be Richmond's only lead of the game. JMU responded with a 5-0 scoring run to put the Dukes up 5-1 with just under 20 minutes remaining in the half. Senior Julie Stone (Annandale, Va./Annandale) contributed two goals in the run including a score at 19:41 off a pass by junior Jaime Dardine (Broomall, Pa./Marple Newtown).

Richmond then responded with two straight goals in a span of 1:57 to pull the Spiders within two at 15:59. The Dukes responded with a three goal run to put them up 8-3, including a score by senior Annie Wagner (Annapolis, Md./St. Paul's/Johns Hopkins) in which she powered through four Richmond players for the aggressive goal at 15:22. The Spiders then went on a three goal run of their own to close the half down 8-6.

JMU senior Emily Haller (Fallston, Md./John Carroll) opened the second half with the first of her two goals at 29:01. Redshirt sophomore Kim Griffin (Jarrettsville, Md./North Harford) would contribute her own goal at 15:15 after a fast break through Richmond defenders to put the Dukes up 10-6. Richmond scored the next two goals to make the score 10-8 with 8:21 to go. The second score came after Marrocco recovered a ground ball and rushed down the field to dish it to senior Jenna Hubbard (Severna Park, Md./St. Mary's) for the goal.

Haller would score again with 7:08 remaining, but the Spiders scored two straight goals to pull within one with 27 seconds to go. After the second Richmond goal, senior Natasha Fuchs (Bay Shore, N.Y./Bay Shore) won the last draw control of the game, and the Dukes maintained possession in the final seconds to seal the victory.

JMU held a 15-8 advantage in draw controls. Wagner led JMU with three goals while Haller and Stone tallied two goals each. Haller also had two assists. Four other Dukes each contributed a goal.

Richmond was led by Marrocco with three scores and an assist. Juniors Allison Furstenburg (Whitehouse Station, N.J./Hunterdon) and Mandy Friend (Canandaigua, N.Y./Canandaigua Academy), and senior Claire Cunniff (Catonsville, Md./Catonsville) each had two goals.

JMU senior goalkeeper Kelly Wetzel (Catonsville, Md./Mount De Sales) finished the day with seven saves, and Richmond sophomore goalkeeper Erica Marrocco (Duxbury, Mass./Duxbury) recorded 10 stops.

Next up for the Dukes is a March 19 away game at Princeton.

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HARRISONBURG, Va. – Junior Lexie Marrocco led the Spiders in the goals column as she recorded a hat trick as they fell to James Madison, 11-10. Allison Furstenburg led in overall points with five, made up of two goals and three assists for Richmond. The Dukes led the Spiders by two at halftime but Richmond was able to rally out-scoring JMU 4-3 in the second half, but was not enough to get the win.

Also scoring for the Spiders was Mandy Friend who put in two goals and added two assists. Senior Claire Cunniff scored two goals of her own while Jenna Hubbard put in one goal for Richmond.

The Spiders made a late run to try to overcome a four goal deficit in the second half but could not finish off the Dukes. Richmond started the day's scoring off with a goal from Lexie Marrocco assisted by classmate Allison Furstenburg to give the Spiders a 1-0 lead just one minute into play.

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2008-03-15