A new direction

JMU lacrosse continues its dominant presence heading into a new conference

By HAYDEN HUNDLEY The Breeze

JMU has been the poster child for midmajor women’s lacrosse programs over the past decade plus, but it’s now preparing to take its talents to a new mid-major conference. Just over a year ago, on Feb. 4, 2022, American Athletic Conference (AAC) Commissioner Mike Aresco and JMU Athletics announced that the JMU lacrosse program will officially join the AAC on July 1, 2022.

The move was deemed necessary due to the Dukes moving from the CAA to the Sun Belt and the CAA’s policy of not letting teams with an impending conference switch compete for conference championships. Since the Sun Belt doesn't sponsored a women’s lacrosse conference, JMU looked to find a new home in the AAC.

“We are pleased to add James Madison's highly successful women's lacrosse program to the American Athletic Conference,” Aresco said in a statement after the announcement. “JMU is firmly established as one of the nation's top programs, with sustained success that aligns with our conference's objective of competing for championships at the highest level.”

This marks the first time since 1992 that the Dukes' lacrosse team will be playing in a new conference. JMU called the CAA home for three decades, but it’s looking to tread through new waters this season.

The Dukes enjoyed frequent success in the CAA, winning 13 conference tournament championships and five more regular season championships. Seven of those 13 titles came after the hire of current head coach Shelly Klaes, including their first national championship title in 2018.

“I think it's important that we create our own identity in a new conference,” Klaes said. “And to me, that's representing JMU in the championship game. I know we have the ability to do what it takes when we’re there but we need to be there in year one.”

There may be some new faces on the team, but Klaes and the Dukes have a history with a few of the AAC’s programs. JMU has a 5-4 all-time series lead against Temple and won both of their last matchups, in 2018 and ’19, 19-7 and 16-10, respectively. The Dukes last played Florida in the 2018 NCAA tournament and beat them 11-8 in the quarterfinals.

“Lacrosse is a pretty small community so we’ve known these coaches for years,” Klaes said. “ODU was an old foe in the CAA, so it's somewhat familiar.”

The Dukes are No. 2 in the AAC’s preseason poll behind Florida and received one first-place vote.

USA Lacrosse’s preseason poll has JMU ranked No. 12 and Florida No. 8, and conference foe Temple was also considered for a top-20 selection. Stony Brook is the CAA’s lone top-20 bid, slotted at No. 4.

Even though they’ve yet to play a game in their new conference, All-Americans Mairead Durkin and Isabella Peterson have already added AAC recognition to their long list of accolades after being selected to the All-AAC preseason all-conference team. Durkin was also named the AAC Preseason Defensive Player of the Year.

Despite the slight uptick in competitiveness, JMU’s leaders said they think the increased level of foes will give them an edge. Durkin said she believes the Dukes perform better when playing against stiffer opponents.

“There’ll be faster play and more competition,” the fifth-year senior said. “I'm excited because it's a more competitive conference and our team tends to step up more when it's a more challenging game rather than when we think we're gonna beat someone we play worse.”

The Dukes will see that heightened competition early this season as their schedule is headlined by an impressive slate of out-of-conference opponents. JMU kicks off its season with three away games versus No.1 North Carolina, another AAC opponent in Virginia Tech, High Point and a neutral-site game in Sparks, Maryland, against UConn, who the Dukes defeated in the first round of the NCAA tournament last year. Other out-of-conference opponents include No. 2 Maryland, No. 20 Richmond, No. 7 Rutgers, No. 13 Virginia and Johns Hopkins.

“Playing some of the top teams in the nation pushes us to learn things we need to work on quickly and early,” junior attacker Isabella Peterson said.

This type of scheduling is familiar to the Dukes, so much as Klaes even called the difficult out-of-conference games “the foundation of JMU lacrosse.”

“It's not just about honing into what you do in the conference,” Klaes said. “So I think we really pride ourselves in going up against the defending national champions right out of the gate — everyone else is scared of that game and we take it.”

CONTACT Hayden Hundley at hundlehf@ dukes.jmu.edu. For more lacrosse coverage, follow the sports desk on Twitter @TheBreezeSports.

9, 2023