James Madison clinched a share of the American Athletic Conference women's lacrosse regular-season championship Saturday, while East Carolina remained in the title chase with a key win to set up a showdown for the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.
The Dukes pulled away for a 20-6 win against South Florida at Sentara Park, while the Pirates edged Charlotte 13-12 to improve to 4-1 in conference play.
East Carolina and James Madison will meet Saturday at Johnson Stadium in Greenville. The winner will earn the No. 1 seed for the American Championship.
JAMES MADISON 20, SOUTH FLORIDA 6
HARRISONBURG, Va. – No. 12 James Madison held South Florida to a scoreless second half en route to a 20-6 win on Senior Day Saturday afternoon at Sentara Park.
Olivia Matthews and Maddie Epke led the JMU attack with four goals each. Matthews also had two assists and picked up a career-high three ground balls while Epke won a game-high 16 draw controls. The 16 draw wins give her 189 in 2025, topping the previous JMU single-season record of 178 which she set in 2024.
Maggie Clark and Savannah Derey also recorded hat tricks, while Payton Root provided two assists for her team-leading sixth game of the season with two or more helpers.
Adanya Moyer made her twelfth start in the cage for JMU and made 10 saves on 23 shots faced for a season-high .625 save percentage, including holding South Florida to 0-of-5 from free-position opportunities.
Carolyn Thistlewaite led the defensive effort with three caused turnovers, while Ava Bleckley recorded two ground balls and caused turnovers. JMU held advantages in shots (36-23), ground balls (16-13), and draw controls (24-6). The Dukes committed more turnovers (17-15) but caused nine takeaways to USF's four.
South Florida (11-4, 4-2 AAC) was paced by Kaitlyn Tartaglione with a pair of goals. Paige Pagano made the start for the Bulls and made eleven saves while giving up 19 goals.
EAST CAROLINA 13, CHARLOTTE 12
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – For the first time in program history, there will be a trophy on the line when the East Carolina lacrosse team plays its final home game next week after a 13-12 win over the Charlotte 49ers on Saturday afternoon in Jerry Richardson Stadium.
With the win, and a JMU victory over South Florida on Saturday, the home finale between the Pirates and Dukes will be for a share of the American Athletic Conference Regular Season Championship. The Pirates have also clinched their berth in the American Tournament for the first time since 2023.
The win boosts the Pirates to 6-8 overall, but more importantly it pushes the team to 4-1 in conference play, breaking the program record for conference wins. The previous high of three was set by that 2023 squad.
The game itself was a thriller. After getting up 2-0 to open the game, the Pirates went down by as many as two in the second quarter as Charlotte rode yet another electric performance by Isa Torres into the lead. Torres finished with five goals and an assist in the game.
That lead was never due to stand for the 49ers and a flurry of goals from Rachel Chessock, including a score with 18.8 seconds remaining before half, took the teams into the break even at seven. Chessock finished the game with a career-high five goals after her second-quarter hat trick, pacing a streaky ECU offense.
One of Chessock's other goals was a critical one with just 6:12 remaining in the fourth quarter which gave the team its largest lead of the game at 13-10, ultimately proving enough to hold on for victory.
The Pirates led for much of the second half after Leah Bestany scored to open the third quarter. Charlotte did manage to rally to briefly retake the lead one more time, but ECU was ready for an answer with goals from Riley Matthiesen and Chessock to put the visitors in front for good.
Matthiesen scored a pair in the game, joining Erin Gulden and Kayla Wilkes in notching multiple goals. It was Wilkes' 10th multi-goal game of the season and Gulden's seventh with three-or-more points.
As the game hung in the balance late, the Pirates dug in deep to hold serve and got a significant boost from Grace McCarthy. The sophomore, who finished the game with six draw controls, recorded four of them in the fourth quarter alone, including the game-sealer with 1:07 remaining which allowed the Pirates to run out the clock.
The game will ultimately be one Charlotte wants back. The 49ers shot themselves in the foot on several occasions, finishing the game with 17 turnovers, only five of which came off of caused turnovers by the Pirates.
However, three of those five caused turnovers came from the indefatigable work of Emma Magazu who finished the game with three caused turnovers and three ground balls. Magazu now has 24 caused turnovers and 37 ground balls, respectively, this season. She is just one caused turnover away from tying the program single season record and has now moved into fifth all time in single-season ground balls.
Jaime Behar got the win in goal, making seven saves in the first half alone as part of her 10 total for the game.
TEMPLE 13, OLD DOMINION 9
NORFOLK, Va. – Temple earned its first American Athletic Conference win of the season with a 13-9 victory over Old Dominion on Saturday afternoon at the L.R. Hill Sports Complex. Amelia Wright led the Owls with three goals, while Sarah Gowman, Erin King and Kaitlyn Stankavage each added two to help snap Temple's six-game losing streak.
Temple jumped out to a commanding 6-1 lead in the first quarter with goals from Sabrina Martin, Wright, Cassidy Brown, King, Gowman and Emily Liberio. ODU's Sylvia Mayo scored late in the quarter to cut the Owls' lead to five.
Temple outscored the Monarchs 2-1 in the second quarter with goals from Stankavage and King, her second of the game. Sydney Taylor scored for ODU in the final seconds of the half to make it 8-2 at the break.
The Owls extended their lead to 11-4 in the third quarter behind goals from Lily Caravela – her first of the game – Wright and Stankavage. ODU's Ella Bowen and Sarah Murrell scored in the frame, and Mayo added her second of the day.
ODU outscored Temple 4-2 in the fourth quarter, but it wasn't enough to close the gap. Gowman and Wright each scored in the final period to seal the 13-9 win for the Owls.