PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers women's lacrosse (4-4) dropped a 16-5 matchup to No. 16 James Madison (5-1) on Saturday at SHI Stadium. Rookie Cassidy Spilis registered her eighth consecutive multi-goal outing for the Scarlet Knights, while Senior captain Samantha Budd, junior Hannah Hollingsworth and freshman Janey Galski added scores in the loss.
 
Logan Brennan and Maddie McDaniel collected four goals apiece for JMU, while four Dukes finished with two or more goals. No. 16 James Madison represents the first of five ranked matchups for Rutgers in its next six outings, as the Scarlet Knights are also slated to take on No.10 Maryland (March 14), No.13 Michigan (March 20), No. 21 Penn State (March 26) and No. 7 Northwestern (April 3) during the stretch. RU has also faced No. 12 UPenn during the tough slate.
 
JMU jumped out to an early 3-0 lead before Budd notched the first goal for Rutgers off a pass from sophomore Marin Hartshorn. The nice assist made it 3-1 with 19:51 to play in the first half. After the Dukes quickly responded, the game would go scoreless for more than 10 minutes before Spilis' unassisted strike put the game within two at 4-2 with 8:34 left in the first half. JMU closed out the half with a 5-1 scoring run to take a 9-3 lead into halftime.
 
The Dukes used a 5-0 run out of the locker room to lead 14-3 with 17 minutes left to play. Spilis and Hollingsworth produced back-to-back scores, but the Dukes held on for their fifth win of the season.
 
Up Next
Rutgers hosts Lafayette for a 6 p.m. game under the lights on Tuesday, March 10.