STONY BROOK, N.Y. – Haley Warden embodies everything that James Madison women’s lacrosse coach Shelley Klaes-Bawcombe searches for in a recruit.

Confidence is one of the things that set Warden and her fellow seniors apart from other classes of James Madison lacrosse players. On top of that, she’s unselfish and level-headed. Most importantly, she’s a clutch performer.

The senior scored five times in the semifinals against North Carolina before scoring three of her four goals late in the second half of Sunday afternoon’s NCAA championship game at Stony Brook’s Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium, leading the Dukes over Boston College, 16-15.

“I think there’s just a lot of individual sacrifice that goes on in our program, and we really get them to buy into that. When they do, really amazing things happen,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. “Look at Haley Warden here. She’s [Co-Defensive Player of the Year] for the conference. The year before, she was the Player of the Year for the conference … She’s clearly a midfielder who’s making a Defensive Player of the Year accolade, and then here you have her in the NCAAs scoring nine goals in the championship weekend. So, I think that, again, it just shows the type of character she has.”

Warden had her work cut out for her in the semifinals, lining up to take the draw against Tewaaraton finalist Marie McCool. Warden succeeded in getting James Madison enough possessions to earn a 15-12 win.

In the final, she lined up across from Sam Apuzzo, Boston College’s exceptional draw-taker and one of the national leaders in that category. The Eagles won 20 of 33 draws, but Warden won the ones that counted – including the final one of the game with 22.1 seconds left after BC had pulled within a goal.

For her efforts, Warden was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament – a tournament that featured four of the five Tewaaraton finalists.

“They’re both really great players and very good on the draw, and I think that as a draw unit, we did a very good job neutralizing them for the most part,” Warden said. “I think that it doesn’t matter who we face, but we know that we put in the work and we’re confident in ourselves, and that’s why we came out on top this weekend.”

Kristen Gaudian, one of those Tewaaraton finalists, said she’s in awe of what Warden can do in the draw circle.

“Her skills on the draw are just unreal,” Gaudian said. “Her wrist strength is … I’ve just never seen anyone have such strong wrists before. She just finished all of her shots this weekend, which was incredible, and it really helped us on the attacking end.”

A true do-it-all midfielder, Warden stepped up on offense this weekend when Gaudian was met with faceguards in both games. Others stepped up, too, but it was Warden who scored the eventual game-winning goal Sunday, making it 16-14 with 1:05 remaining after burying an assist from Katie Kerrigan.

Throughout James Madison’s storybook run to a national championship, Warden was one of the keys in keeping the Dukes’ underdog mentality alive. The number of doubters lessened after each passing round of the tournament, but there were still some who remained heading into the final.

Warden said that’s what helped give the Dukes an edge.

“I think that no one expected us to win this game today, and going into this game I’d say yeah, we were the underdogs,” she said. “But right now, I just think that our hard work this whole entire season really paid off. I’m happy we embraced that mentality because I think it really helped us thrive this weekend.”

An impressive list of accomplishments – Warden is James Madison’s all-time leader in draw controls and caused turnovers, and she was drafted by the Baltimore Ride in the fourth round of the UWLAX 2018 College Draft – is now capped off with a national title, the first for a mid-major and the first for a team in the CAA.

Outside of the conference, Warden might not have had the name recognition of the players around the country constantly grabbing headlines. But on the grandest stage of her decorated career, Warden produced.

She’s as much of a household name now as anyone else to participate in this year’s championship weekend, and for good reason. She’s not an underdog anymore.