ELON, N.C. – Two late goals by James Madison powered the Dukes past the Elon women’s lacrosse team, 9-7, in the final home game of the season for the Phoenix tonight, April 15, at Rudd Field.
With the game tied at seven-all, JMU netted a goal with 2:27 remaining and another with just seven ticks left to put the game out of reach for the maroon and gold.
The Phoenix (8-5, 1-2 CAA) finished with 17 shots in the game, went 9-of-10 in clear attempts, claimed six ground balls and five draws.
Shelby Scanlin led the maroon and gold with three goals off three shots, including a perfect 2-for-2 in free-position shots, and also tallied three draw controls. Stephanie Asher, Anna Vitton, Shannon Horan and Abby Godfrey all tallied scores for Elon, while Grace Simpson and Sloane Kessler each recorded an assist. Rachel Ramirez posted five saves for the Phoenix in goal to go along with a ground ball and caused turnover.
The Dukes (8-7, 4-0 CAA) tallied 19 shots in the game, went 7-of-8 in clear attempts, won 13 draws and had seven ground balls. Jaci Gordon finished with three goals for JMU, while Betsy Angel also had three points after one goal and two assists. Kaitlin Martindale recorded four saves in goal to claim the win between the pipes for the Dukes.
Highlights
A free-position goal by Scanlin and a score by Asher put the Phoenix up 2-0 by the 22:43 mark. The Dukes answered with two goals less than 20 seconds apart to even the game, two-all, with 21:07 on the clock.
After trading goals to make it a 3-3 game, a win at the draw by Scanlin allowed Simpson to find Horan for her first career goal to put Elon in front, 4-3, with 12:18 remaining. A free-position goal by Godfrey with 3:35 on the clock made it a 5-3 advantage for the Phoenix before a JMU score with less than two minutes on the clock for a 5-4 maroon and gold lead at the break.
The Dukes took the momentum from the end of the first half, notching three goals in the first eight minutes of the second frame to move in front, 7-5.
With 16:11 on the clock, Scalin netted her second free-position goal of the day to pull the Phoenix within one. Nearly 10 minutes later, Kessler found Scanlin over the top of the net for the tying goal, seven-all, with 6:36 left in the game.
However, the Dukes claimed the ensuing draw and ran over four minutes off the clock before scoring on a free-position shot at the 2:27 mark and again with seven seconds remaining to claim the win.
Next Up
The Phoenix plays its first conference road games of the season next weekend when the team travels to Drexel and Hofstra. Elon takes on the Dragons in Philadelphia on Friday, April 22, at 7 p.m. before closing out the weekend in Hempstead, N.Y., against the Pride on Sunday, April 24, at noon.