Posted on April 3, 2008
JMU and William & Mary will enter Friday’s game with losing records. But the wins and losses are deceiving considering the early-season opponents of both teams.
The 4-6 Tribe travel to Harrisonburg to take on 4-5 Madison in JMU’s first Colonial Athletic Association game.
Both teams have been beat up by national powerhouses thus far this season, each challenged by extremely competitive early season schedules.
In fact, JMU’s schedule has been so tough that even with a losing record, the laxpower.com rankings have the Dukes at 16 in the country entering their matchup with W&M. The insidelacrosse.com poll has JMU at 19 as of March 31.
The Dukes have faced six nationally-ranked teams to date and have lost to all but one. The Tribe had a similar fate, having faced five teams ranked in the top 25 and losing to four. The common denominator? Each team’s upset win came against No. 10 Stanford. JMU defeated the Cardinal on Saturday with a last-second goal from senior midfielder Julie Stone.
Stone has 20 goals so far this season, only one short of senior attacker Annie Wagner. Together the senior duo has combined for 43 percent of the Dukes’ 95 goals this season.
“Anytime you can have people step up and be consistent from game to game it gives you a lot of confidence,” JMU coach Shelley Klaes-Bawcombe said.
The JMU seniors look to defeat the Tribe for the first time in their career at JMU. Last year the Dukes fell 10-9 in double overtime in Williamsburg. Although they haven’t had recent success against W&M, a win over a top 10 team gives the Dukes an added boost for Friday.
“[The win over Stanford] gives us confidence going into a crucial conference opener,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. “We know we can beat a great team in Stanford, we just have to do it again with W&M.”
JMU’s game with W&M is its first of seven straight CAA contests to close out the regular season. The CAA Tournament begins in less than a month, on May 2.
And while the first half of its season was tougher, there is no doubt JMU is now entering the most important part of its season.
“Anytime you get into conference play, it’s a new season,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. “We have to go into this season and disregard our non-conference schedule.”
