Recap courtesy of Miami Athletic Communications Department
No. 1 Miami 2, No. 4 James Madison 1
Box Score
HARRISONBURG, Va. – Miami defeated JMU in a narrow 2-1 showdown in the MAC Tournament Semifinals Thursday to earn a spot in the championship game. MAC Freshman of the Year Justina Intzes and MAC Offensive Player of the Year Malena Sabez were the goal scorers for Miami, each scoring on a penalty corner. Miami improves to 15-4 with the win (8-1 MAC), while James Madison falls to 12-8 (6-3 MAC).
After dominating possession in the game's early minutes, Miami let up four straight penalty corners to the Dukes. Goalkeeper Nicky Sjouken made two saves and the Miami defense managed to hold the Dukes scoreless through the first period.
Miami answered with a string of five penalty corners of their own in the second period, but the Dukes' defense, led by goalkeeper Hannah Popolis, kept Miami out of the net.
The RedHawks generated one more penalty corner near the end of the half, but Popolis came up with a save to keep it a scoreless game through 30 minutes of play.
The Dukes shut down two more RedHawk penalty corners to start the third period. On the third corner of the period and Miami's 11th of the day, Intzes snuck the ball past Popolis's right foot to give Miami a 1-0 lead. Kylie Coughlin inserted the ball and Paula Navarro set the ball up for Intzes to earn an assist.
Sabez scored her 22nd goal of the season less than two minutes later on another penalty corner after firing a shot into the bottom-right corner of the net. Kylie Coughlin was on the insert and Berta Mata set up the strike, earning her 20th assist of the year to add to Miami's program single-season and career records and make it 2-0.
James Madison launched a long pass towards the net from outside the arc and tipped the pass into the goal, cutting the deficit to 2-1 to round out the third quarter.
Each team defended one penalty corner early in the fourth. Popolis made a save later in the fourth on a penalty stroke attempt by Riley Mazzalupi to keep the score 2-1.
James Madison pulled their goalie with two minutes left to play, adding an extra attacker. Julia Fernandez managed to take possession away to run the clock down and Mazzalupi deflected an inward pass with seconds to go to secure the RedHawks a 2-1 win and a place in the title game.
The RedHawks took 16 total shots (12 on goal) and held the Dukes to five (three on goal).
Miami generated 13 penalty corners and held James Madison to five.
Sabez took six shots and put all six on goal.
The RedHawks have earned a spot in Saturday's noon title game, where they will play for their eighth straight MAC postseason title. They will face the winner of today's 2:30 p.m. game between the No. 2 seeded UMass and the No. 3 seeded App State.
