April 26, 2008

HARRISONBURG, Va. - No. 13 George Mason (12-4, 5-2 CAA) took a late three-goal lead and held off the James Madison Dukes (7-9, 3-4 CAA) for an 11-10 victory in a back-and-forth affair on Saturday afternoon at the James Madison Lacrosse and Soccer Complex. With the win, the Patriots clinch the second seed in next weekend's CAA Championship Tournament.

The top four teams in the conference standings at the end of the regular season all advance to the CAA Championship Tournament, held on May 2-4. William and Mary locked up the top seed in the conference tournament and the right to host the event with Thursday's 19-7 victory over Old Dominion. With today's win, the Patriots tied the school record set in 2005 with five conference victories and locked up the second seed in the CAA Championships. Towson is the third seed and Delaware is the fourth seed. Mason will play Towson in the CAA Semifinals next Friday.

After a first half featuring five ties and two lead changes, the two teams entered the intermission with James Madison clinging to a slim one-goal lead. The Dukes took the 8-7 lead on senior attacker Emily Haller's point-blank shot mere moments before the clock on the scoreboard hit triple zeros.

The Patriots erased a three-goal deficit at the start to take their first lead of the game at 7-6. Trailing 6-4 after back-to-back goals by JMU, Mason went on a 3-0 run to gain the advantage. Senior attacker Laura King began the scoring spurt with a free-position goal with 9:05 remaining in the half. Junior midfielder Alana Chan followed with a free-position goal at 5:51 and freshman attacker Chelsea Gamble gave the Patriots the lead with a goal off of a nice feed from King at the 4:30 mark.

James Madison countered with the final two goals of the half. Senior attacker Natasha Fuchs scored her first goal of the day with 4:11 left in the half to tie the score at seven before Haller's goal gave the Dukes the advantage.

After a little more than seven minutes of scoreless play to begin the second half, Mason broke through when Gamble's second score of the afternoon tied the game at eight. Senior midfielder Megan Bartlett assisted on the goal. After Gamble's goal, lightning was spotted in the area and the teams were forced to clear the field for more than an hour due to the inclement weather.

After the teams returned to the field, Mason got on the board first when Chan charged toward the goal and fired off a shot that made its way past senior goalkeeper Kelly Wetzel for the 9-8 lead with 18:39 remaining. Berger tacked on another score at the 12:15 mark and King followed with her second goal of the contest to push the Patriots' lead to 11-8.

James Madison scored its first goal after the weather delay with 10:28 remaining to end Mason's run of four consecutive goals to begin the second half. Sophomore midfielder Kim Griffin cut the Patriots' lead to two with the Dukes' first goal of the second half. Junior attacker Jaime Dardine scored her third goal of the contest with 9:12 left to make the score 11-10 in favor of Mason.

The 11-10 score held for the final 9:12 of the contest as the Patriots' defensive unit turned away the James Madison attack time-and-time again. With 6:35 remaining, sophomore goalkeeper Sara Longobucco turned away Griffin's close-range shot attempt. Then, on the Dukes' ensuing offensive possession, Bartlett made a great interception to stop a James Madison fast break. With 1:45 remaining, Longobucco again came up huge, turning away senior midfielder Julie Stone's free-position shot. JMU had another opportunity when senior attacker Annie Wagner fired a shot with 1:05 remaining. The shot hit the post and the loose ball was recovered by senior defender Jenny Tran. However, the Patriots were unable to clear the ball, giving James Madison the possession with 30 seconds left in the contest. Fuchs threw the ball out of bounds with 12 seconds remaining and Mason ran out the clock for the victory.

Mason completed the finest regular season in school history with 12 wins, the first time the Patriots have reached double-digit wins in the 15-year history of the program. Mason's potent attack is a major reason for that success as the Patriots have scored a school-record 201 goals this season while holding opponents to only 156.