Big Wins for Girls Lax and Diamond Dukes

The JMU woman’s lacrosse team took care of business with a 9-8 victory over Stanford in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. I’d be lying if I told you that I had watched a single woman’s lacrosse game since graduating, but I did attempt to follow Saturday’s game online. The NCAA online tracker for woman’s lacrosse isn’t exactly the slickest tool available though (Ed. note – It sucks. Really sucks. I would have been better off having someone mail me letters from the stands.), so my attempts to recap the game might leave you lacking. As best I could tell, Stanford scored early and carried a 7-4 lead into the half. JMU stormed back to pull within 1, before time apparently stopped for 23 minutes. The next update the nifty little online tracker provided showed me JMU had won 9-8. So Boo NCAA Woman’s Lax Online Tracker! Yay Lady Dukes! JMU moves on and will play Syracuse in the NCAA quarterfinals this weekend in Harrisonburg.

It was also a big weekend for the Diamond Dukes, who faced a critical late season series against Hofstra. JMU took the series opener 17-9 on Friday night and dropped a 6-4 decision on Saturday, before storming back for a 12-7 win on Sunday. The win moved them to 26-20 overall and 16-5 in the CAA.  Freshman Matt Tenaglia had an outstanding weekend at the plate. He was 4 for 5 on Sunday, capping a series in which he went 8-12. Senior Matt Browning also was getting it done, with 8 hits in 13 at bats, including 3 doubles, a triple, and a homer. The Dukes have yet to lose a series in CAA play (7-0) and are the favorites to win the conference title. They’re going to need to if they want to move onto the NCAA tournament, because the CAA is a likely a one-bid league. An early season upset of Coastal Carolina or UVA would have helped the resume. Now the Dukes are in position where they’re going to need to win their way in. I think they can and will.