No easy road for JMU lacrosse

The road that the JMU lacrosse team travels this season isn't laid with golden bricks. It's long and winding, and has included four opponents ranked in the top 15 so far.

The Dukes lost all four of those games, and are 3-4 as a result. But all of those games were on the road. 

"Traveling is tough," JMU senior attacker Annie Wagner said. "A new environment, a new field, it can be challenging."

Regardless, JMU expects to meet those challenges.

"Our losses didn't occur because of location," JMU junior defender Jess Brophy said. 

But for the most part, the Dukes have been able to stay close in those tough road games.

In JMU's first game of the season, No. 13 Dartmouth scored with 57 seconds left in sudden-death overtime to hand JMU a 9-8 road loss.

The following game at No. 10 Yale was much of the same. The Dukes led 3-0 early, but a goal by Yale attacker Kat Peetz with a little more than eight minutes left lifted Yale to a 10-9 victory.

"I don't believe in home field advantage," JMU senior attacker Natasha Fuchs said. "but there's definitely a difference..the teams we're playing on the road they're top 10 teams. 

Fuchs led JMU with three goals at Yale, as Madison lost its second game of the season and fell to 0-2.

With their rocky start behind them, the Dukes are trying to build a resume that would garner an at large bid to the NCAA tournament. Despite losing 17-10 at No. 7 Princeton on Wednesday, the Dukes have won three out of their last five games.

The Dukes' next game is in Charlottesville on Wednesday to take on No. 3 University of Virginia.