Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 3/7/18
From Press Releases
Behind a five-goal afternoon from senior midfielder Haley Warden (Garnet Valley), third-ranked and host James Madison held off a late rally to defeat No. 20 Penn State, 14-12, in non-conference women’s lacrosse action on Wednesday afternoon at Sentara Park.
The Dukes improved to 6-0 on the year, matching their best start since 2011, while the Nittany Lions fell to 3-3. The win also snapped PSU’s three-game win streak in the series and avenged last year’s NCAA Second Round loss.
Warden tied her career high six points, scoring five goals to go with one assist. She also caused three turnovers and collected two ground balls. Senior midfielder Elena Romesburg (Central Bucks West) recorded a hat trick while tying her career high of five draw controls. She also tallied four ground balls. Junior attacker Hanna Haven and senior attacker Kristen Gaudian each notched a pair of goals, and Gaudian won a career-high seven draw controls to lead all players.
JMU out-shot PSU 33-24 (25-18 SOG) while also holding advantages in caused turnovers (11-9) and ground balls (23-13). Both teams each won 14 draw controls, with PSU winning seven of the final eight to set up the visitor’s comeback attempt.
Leading 7-4 at the break, the Dukes stormed out of the gates in the second half, scoring six of seven to take a 13-5 lead with 13:33 to play. The Nittany Lions answered with four straight in a span of 2:36 to climb to within 13-9 with 8:25 to go. After Warden fired home her fifth goal to make it 14-9 with 6:07 left, Penn State came back with a string of three straight to make it a 14-12 game with 3:38 to go.
With a minute to play, Madison Carter’s shot on a 1-v-1 opportunity was saved by junior Ellie Harmeyer (5-0), one of her six stops on the day, to secure JMU’s second top-20 victory of the season.
PSU was led by Carter, who had five goals and six draw. Maggie Gallagher scored three times and Katie O’Donnell (Henderson) potted two goals, to go with five draws. Lucy Lowe took the loss between the pipes despite making a game-high 11 saves.