Penalties Plague Towson Game

April 20, 2009 • By Tim Chapman, The Breeze
Print This Post
Email This Post

HARRISONBURG, Va. — Shelley Klaes-Bawcombe can be rather convincing when it comes to delivering motivational speeches.

But believing and achieving are two different things.

With her team trailing 9-6 in Sunday’s lacrosse game against Towson, the third-year coach called timeout with just over six minutes remaining.

Klaes-Bawcombe repeatedly mentioned, “believing in ourselves” and the Dukes seemed to buy it, but the Tigers proved to be too much in the 10-7 defeat on Senior Day.

“With experience comes mental toughness and comes confidence,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. “And right now we’re rather young and they’re going to have to learn through making those mistakes.”

With only four seniors and a roster that boasts 10 true freshmen, youthful mistakes continued to plague the Dukes (5-10 overall, 1-5 in the Colonial Athletic Association).

Despite taking a 5-2 lead into the half, JMU’s mental toughness failed to mirror its physical toughness in the final 30 minutes.

The Dukes were tagged with three yellow cards in the second half and the penalties couldn’t have come at worse times.

JMU sophomore Mary Kate Lomady capitalized on a hard foul by Towson’s Jackie LaMonica, but momentum shifted when JMU sophomore Diana Apel was also carded.

Lomady’s second goal of the afternoon made it 6-4 with 18:11 remaining, but Towson’s Nikki Marcinik scored her third of five goals while Madison was a player down because of the penalty.

Marcinik scored No. 4 to tie the game at 6-6 with 12:44 left and the Tigers’ Britt Woodfield gave Towson its first lead of the game just over a minute later.

“Having an away game is hard but once we adjusted to the grass and everything we just knew that we could step up and do a good game,” Marcinik said.

Woodfield was the beneficiary of another hard foul by Apel, which saddled the Glenwood, Md., native with her second yellow card of the afternoon and gave the Tigers (10-5, 4-2) another three-minute advantage. Meggie McNamara also scored during the advantage and Jacie Kendall capped a 5-0 run before JMU called timeout.

“I think the officials are really concentrating on contact and you have to give a little bit with that contact,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. “You still have that hard body but you have to have soft hands and [Apel’s] hands were hard.”

JMU junior Susan Lines netted the last goal for the Dukes with 1:10 remaining, giving her team a glimmer of hope.

Towson goalkeeper Mary Teeters squashed any JMU momentum seconds later when she stoned freshman Monica Zabel’s free position shot attempt.

Marcinik scored an inconsequential goal with eight seconds remaining. Lomady and senior Jamie Dardine led the Dukes with two goals each.

Dardine was honored with fellow seniors Jess Brophy, Morgan Kimberly and Mary Fran Shelton before the game.

Contact Tim Chapman at breezeeditor@gmail.com

Filed Under Sports