James Madison was already going to host the Colonial Athletic Association Women's Lacrosse Championship, but now the No. 4 Dukes will do it as the No. 1 seed and the CAA regular season champs after a thrilling 17-16 overtime victory at No. 10 Towson.
Following a charge call against Towson's Emily Gillingham early in the second half of the first overtime period turned the ball over to the Dukes, senior Kristen Gaudian deposited the game-winner off a feed from Katie Kerrigan with 1:18 remaining to give JMU the championship.
JMU (16-1, 6-0 CAA) jumped out to an early 3-0 lead and then scored two straight goals to close the first half and take an 8-6 lead. The Dukes controlled the game through much of the second half, leading by as many as five goals and by three with just over six minutes to play.
Towson (14-3, 5-1 CAA) rallied, scoring the final three goals of regulation to tie it 16-16. Gillingham scored the game-tying goal with 49 seconds left. The Tigers then won the draw and Gabby Cha drew a penalty for a free position shot with five seconds left, but JMU goalie Molly Dougherty made the save to send it to overtime.
The Dukes had two golden opportunities to win the game near the end of the first half of the opening overtime period, but Maddie McDaniel's shot bounced off the crossbar and then Towson goalie Kiley Keating made a huge save on Morgan Hardt's shot in the closing seconds.
Maddie McDaniel had a team-high four goals for JMU while Gaudian added three. Hannah Haven (2g, 4a) and Katie Kerrigan (2g, 3a) also had big games.
Natalie Sulmonte led Towson's offense with four goals and two assists and the Tigers also got hat tricks from Kaitlyn Montalbano, Kaitlin Thornton and Gillingham.
JMU will host No. 4 seed Delaware in one CAA semifinal next weekend and No. 2 Towson will host No. 3 Elon in the other game. Elon's game scheduled for Saturday against William & Mary was cancelled due to an outbreak of mumps with the W&M team.
Princeton Earns Ivy League No. 1 Seed
A 22-16 win over Columbia gave Princeton a share of the Ivy League regular season championship, and Brown's shocking 17-13 win over Dartmouth turned a potential three-way Ivy League tie into a two-way tie between Princeton and Penn. The Tigers earned the No. 1 seed for the Ivy League tournament and the right to host the even based on their 21-8 blowout win over the Quakers earlier this week.
Elizabeth George and Kyla Sears each scored six goals for the Tigers, who have now one four straight games since an 11-10 loss to Maryland on April 10.
Despite the loss, Columbia reached the Ivy League tournament for the first time in school history thanks to Harvard's 14-13 upset victory over Cornell. Columbia finished fourth in the Ivy League standings at 3-4 while Brown, Cornell, Harvard and Yale all went 2-5.
Princeton will meet Columbia in one semifinal on Friday while Dartmouth and Penn square off in the other.
Brown Shocks No. 15 Dartmouth
Freshman Risa Mosenthal led all scorers with six points (4g, 2a) as Brown shocked No. 15 Dartmouth 17-13 to close out its 2018 season. The Bears led by as many as seven goals in the second half.
Trailing 3-2, Brown's Emma DeGennaro scored back-to-back goals to ignite a six-goal run and the Bears never trailed again.
Hafsa Moinuddin had a hat trick for Brown and Mikaela Karlsson made 10 saves. Kierra Sweeney led Dartmouth with four goals.