HARRISONBURG, Va. (April 5, 2014)—The William and Mary lacrosse team fell at James Madison, 18-11, in its conference opener on Saturday afternoon.

The Tribe (2-9, 0-1) trailed by just three goals early in the second half, but JMU (7-5, 1-0) utilized an 8-0 run to pull away for the victory.

Juniors Alexi Farmakis (2g, 1a) and Kaleigh Noon (2g, 1a) led W&M with three points apiece, while senior Jenna Dougherty and junior Ellen Shaffrey both recorded two goals. Farmakis also added four ground balls, three caused turnovers and a draw control, while Shaffrey posted four draw controls.

Sophomore Zoe Boger also came up big with four draw controls, while freshman Abby Junior totaled three ground balls, three caused turnovers and two draw controls.

As a team, W&M owned advantages in draw controls (18-13), ground balls (13-10) and committed three fewer turnovers (10-13).

The Tribe began the game well and took an early 2-0 lead following goals by junior Amanda Johnson and Shaffrey in the opening minutes. However, JMU responded with an 8-1 run to build an 8-3 advantage midway through the first half.

W&M allowed just two more goals during the remainder of the stanza and trailed, 10-6, at halftime. In addition to a free position goal by Dougherty at 12:14, Farmakis found the back of the cage twice in the final 1:40 to help the College cut into the Dukes' lead.

Despite trailing at the break, the Tribe owned an 11-7 advantage in draw controls during the opening 30 minutes.

Although W&M recorded the initial goal of the second half on a score by Dougherty, the Dukes countered by rattling off eight unanswered goals to go ahead, 18-7, with less than 10 minutes remaining.

The College scored four goals in the final 4:08 but was unable to get any closer than the final margin.

The Tribe will continue its conference slate next weekend when it travels to Towson and Delaware.