James Madison has always prided itself on peaking at the right time. The Dukes focus on managing out their year, coach Shelley Klaes said, so that they’re playing their best lacrosse when the postseason rolls around.

That’s no different in 2021. After an overtime win over Drexel in the CAA championship game on Sunday, James Madison will enter the NCAA tournament’s first round on Friday riding a six-game winning streak, with four of those wins coming by six goals or more.

“We can feel this momentum that we’ve created as a program, generating a lot of confidence off the adjustments we’ve made from the beginning of the season to the last five or six games,” Klaes said. “We’re just feeling a tremendous amount of confidence that regardless of who’s on the field, we have the right team to win those games.”

One look at the Dukes’ season stat sheet proves that sentiment. In its third game of the season on March 7 against Elon, James Madison managed only six shots in the first half and 17 total in what would end as a 6-5 loss — its fewest goals in one game since 2019.

But by the time the Dukes lined up for the rematch against the Phoenix on April 25, they looked a different team, with 15 shots in the first half alone and 15 goals to pick up a 15-9 win to close the regular season. The differences in those two matchups illustrate the upward trajectory this team has traveled over the course of the 2021 campaign.

“The maturity of our attacking unit, a willingness to take more risks, draw fouls, and get on that eight-meter mark and finish,” Klaes said, “that’s been a huge growth point for us on the attacking end.”

Redshirt-freshman attacker Isabella Peterson has broken through as the centerpiece of the James Madison’s offense with 41 goals on the year and 19 in her last four games.

Peterson and the rest of the attacking unit were boosted by the recent return of fellow attacker Katie Checkosky, who battled an injury to start the campaign. She’s returned to tally 18 assists in six games — tied for the second-most on the team, despite playing in less than half its games this year.

“Having [Checkosky’s] experience, her game IQ and her leadership out on the field has changed our offensive unit and helped flow between offense and defense,” redshirt-senior defender Emma Johnson said. “She’s helping a lot of our younger scorers shine through.”

The improvement isn’t limited to just the attacking end of the field. The Dukes have fine-tuned their draw game, working through some personnel changes to now line up a consistent group on the circle that’s helped them win the draw control battle in five of their last six games.

Factor in a defense — which Klaes says has been the team’s “rock” all season long — that has managed to slow down some of the leading and prolific scorers in the CAA, and the Dukes had the players in place to contend for their fourth straight conference title last weekend.

James Madison and Drexel hadn’t met during the regular season, so their matchup in the CAA tournament championship game had an added level of anticipation. But the Dukes hopped out to an early lead in the first half, holding a Dragons team that averages more than 16 goals per game to only four in the opening frame.

The lead would disappear in the second half, but James Madison knew that another run could shift the advantage back in their favor. It did, and after three straight goals tied the score at 12 at the end of regulation, a game-winner off the free position by redshirt-sophomore midfielder Lizzy Fox gave the Dukes a 13-12 win and their crown. Molly Dougherty made 16 saves and earned USA Lacrosse Division I Player of the Week honors.

“We’ve been in seven consecutive CAA championship games, and that experience with a lot of our players kind of set us apart,” said Johnson, who has started every game she has ever played for JMU. “We knew it was going to be a battle and that we were going to play all 60 minutes for us to come out on top.”

That experience paid off in a conference championship game setting, and they’re hoping the same will be true in their next postseason showing. James Madison drew Johns Hopkins in the first round of this year’s NCAA tournament. The two teams last faced off in 2004 when the Dukes came away with a 14-9 win in the first round.

The players and staff alike have noticed similarities between the Blue Jays’ fast-paced style of play and some of the CAA teams they faced this season, so the Dukes were quick to transition from postgame celebration back to pregame preparation for what lies ahead. 

“We think we have a great gameplan going into it, and it’s just about continuing to focus on ourselves and be ready for any type of opponent that we face in the coming days,” Johnson said.