April 29, 2007

Box Score

FAIRFAX, Va. - George Mason closed out its 2007 women's lacrosse season with a close 12-10 loss to the eighth-ranked James Madison Dukes on Sunday afternoon at George Mason Stadium. With the loss, the Patriots end the season with a 6-10 overall record and 1-6 mark in CAA contests. The Dukes improve to 12-4 overall and 5-2 in CAA games with the win.

Mason took a quick 1-0 lead when senior attacker Melissa Venturi fired a shot past JMU goalkeeper Kelly Wetzel a minute into the game. However, the lead was short lived as James Madison scored the next three goals of the game before junior attacker Laura King scored off an assist from senior midfielder Melissa Curry to cut the deficit to a goal at 3-2 with 16 minutes remaining in the first period. After King's goal, the Dukes outscored the Patriots 4-1 to take a 7-3 lead into the half.

In the second period, George Mason trailed by five goals, 12-7, with 7:15 remaining in the game. The Patriots went on a 3-0 run over the next 3:51 of the game as King tallied two goals and Venturi added another to cut the deficit to 12-10 with 3:24 remaining in the game. The comeback attempt fell short though, as the Patriots ran out of time, giving James Madison the victory.

Senior midfielder Kelly Berger scored three goals to lead James Madison, who will be the second seed in next weekend's CAA Championships, which will be hosted by top-seeded Hofstra. The top four teams in the CAA standings all advance to the CAA Championships.

King scored four goals to lead Mason. Playing in their final games as seniors were Curry, attacker Becky Lee, defender Katie Linnertz, midfielder Jess Shelton and Venturi. Curry finished with an assist, a ground ball and a caused turnover; Lee made the fourth start of her career, Linnertz scooped up three ground balls, Shelton caused two turnovers and tallied four ground balls and Venturi scored three goals, and added an assist and two draw controls. All five seniors were honored in a ceremony prior to the start of the game.