Stone beats buzzer for fifth goal in 10-9 win against the Cardinal
Posted on March 31, 2008
The momentum was squarely in Stanford’s favor near the end of the game Saturday, but JMU women’s lacrosse coach Shelley Klaes-Bawcombe called Julie Stone’s number to rectify things.
After the Cardinal tied the game with 34 seconds left, James Madison ran a set play that gave the senior midfielder a chance to end the game in regulation. Stone scored her fifth goal as time expired, giving Madison a 10-9 win.
“Today the attack did a much better job trying to control the tempo of the game,” Stone said. “In the past we’ve been turning the ball over, and I think we improved on that aspect.”
After losing two straight to No. 2 Princeton and No. 4 Virginia, JMU was searching for its first win against a ranked opponent this season. When No. 10 Stanford knotted the game at 9-9, JMU relinquished a lead it held for almost the entire second half.
But Madison (4-5) won the ensuing face-off and called a timeout to diagram a set play for Stone, who scored four of JMU’s first nine goals. The play took longer than expected to develop, but she picked up the ball and fired just in time.
“They didn’t get scared at the end of the game,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. “We lost against Yale and Dartmouth in the same situation where we didn’t create a shot, and they really showed a lot of heart to be able to find that opportunity and score.”
Earlier in the game, JMU’s streak of five straight losses to ranked teams looked like it might continue.
Stanford senior attacker Daphne Patterson glided left, cut back right and fired at the net, scoring Stanford’s second goal before five minutes had run off the clock. Patterson was Stanford’s leading scorer with three goals and also had one of only two Cardinal assists.
It seemed effortless for the No. 10 team in the nation until a pair of JMU seniors took control of the game.
After the Cardinal took a 2-0 lead, Stone and senior attacker Natasha Fuchs scored goals two minutes apart to tie the game, and JMU went into halftime with the game tied at three. Stone scored her second goal less than a minute into the second half on an assist from Fuchs, and the Dukes established a lead they would hold on to until Stanford’s tying goal in the last minute.
The last goal JMU scored before the game-winner came with 12:44 left, giving Madison a 9-4 lead. But Stanford responded with five unanswered in the game’s final 10 minutes, before Stone’s heroics ensured Madison wouldn’t lose its third straight game.
Her shot reversed a trend this season; the Dukes have lost three games by two points or less.
“It’s been a bumpy road, this whole entire season,” Fuchs said. “This is a good win for us, especially going into our conference play.”
While Klaes-Bawcombe emphasized the importance of scheduling tough opponents in non-conference play to prepare her team for Colonial Athletic Association competition, she did not anticipate Stanford’s level of success this season.
“Stanford, who wasn’t ranked last year, all of a sudden is a top 10 team,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. “This was a game going into this year that wasn’t supposed to be one of those ‘top 10’ challenges.”
But JMU stepped up and improved its home record to 4-0, as the Dukes prepare for seven conference games leading into the CAA tournament. The first of those is Friday against William & Mary at home, Madison’s next game.
