No. 8 Virginia Travels to No. 12 JMU on Wednesday

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March 17, 2015

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 8 Virginia women’s lacrosse team (4-4, 0-2 ACC) plays at No. 12 James Madison (7-1, 0-0 CAA) on Wednesday, March 18 at 7 p.m. in Harrisonburg, Va.

Virginia is 2-3 against top-10 teams this season and 2-4 against top-20 teams. Eight of Virginia’s first 10 games are against ranked opponents. The Cavaliers are coming off an 18-11 victory over No. 10 Princeton on Saturday. Freshman Kasey Behr (Northport, N.Y.) had a season-high five points, scoring four goals with an assist. Behr has scored 12 goals in the last four games, with back-to-back hat tricks against Harvard and UNC, followed by a two-goal game against Loyola.

Redshirt senior Liza Blue (Butler, Md.) also scored four goals with an assist, her third five-point game of the season. Blue, who also won three draw controls, is averaging 2.75 draw controls per game, ranking 10th in the ACC. Blue comes into the game with 112 career draw controls, needing to win two more to tie Elaina Maddox (1984-87) for 10th place on the Virginia career draw control list.

In addition to scoring her second-straight hat trick against Princeton, senior Courtney Swan (Vero Beach, Fla.) matched her career high with 10 draw controls. Swan is averaging 5.13 draws per game, which ranks third in the ACC and 10th in the nation.

Virginia leads the all-time series against James Madison, 30-12-1, including logging a 12-10 victory last season in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers are 12-2 against the Dukes since 2002.

After falling to North Carolina in their season opener, the Dukes have won seven-straight games, their second-longest winning streak since head coach Shelley Klaes-Bawcombe took over the program in 2007. Goalkeeper Schylar Healy is averaging 9.5 saves per game, which ranks 12th in the nation. Betsy Angel leads the team with 31 points, scoring a team-high 22 goals with nine assists.

Two Dukes earned conference honors this week as Alison Curwin was named the CAA Player of the Week and Kaci Starkloff the CAA Defensive Player of the Week. Curwin tallied five goals over the two games last week, three of which came against Rutgers on Saturday. In a 13-12 victory over Penn State, Curwin gave JMU its first lead of the day after beating the Nittany Lion goalie with 3:16 remaining in regulation. Starkloff played a key role for the Dukes in upsetting Penn State on Wednesday, as she came up with three ground balls and a draw control to lead JMU’s defensive effort.

The Cavaliers will be back at home on Saturday, March 21 to host No. 4 Duke at 1 p.m. at Klöckner Stadium.

Single-game reserved seats are available for all women’s home games for $7. Single-game general admission adult tickets for women’s home games are $5, while youth (18 and under), seniors (60 and over), and UVa faculty and staff tickets are $4 each.