All season, the Georgetown women’s lacrosse team has fallen into a routine of starting slow and coming on strong in the second half. Wednesday was no exception.

Ten minutes into the game, the No. 6 Hoyas found themselves trailing 6-3, but a late surge propelled them to a 13-8 victory over James Madison.

The Hoyas (12-3, 5-0 Big East) struggled just after the first whistle, while the Dukes (7-9, 2-5 CAA) won the opening draw and scored just 53 seconds into the game.

“We don’t get the first draw, we don’t get the first save, we think we’re playing catch-up when we go down 1-0, and mentally we start to press a little bit,” Georgetown Head Coach Ricky Fried said. “We got two or three draw controls in the first 10 minutes and we scored on all of those possessions, but they got the other five or six.”

Senior midfielder Lauryn Bernier answered for Georgetown, tying the game 36 ticks later, but JMU scored twice within 25 seconds to take a two-goal lead.

The teams traded goals throughout the first half with the Dukes at one point taking a three-goal edge, 6-3. JMU freshman midfielder Emily Haller played a large part in that, scoring her three goals over a 13-minute period in the first half. The Hoyas kept themselves down, allowing turnovers while not capitalizing on groundballs or draw controls.

But the strength of two sophomore attackers ensured that the Hoyas were not out of the competition. Coco Stanwick put back three of her five goals in the first half while Brittany Baschuk scored twice. The two combined for the Hoyas’ final five goals of the half. Stanwick scored with just under a minute left to tie the game, 6-6, and Baschuk gave Georgetown its first lead of the game six seconds before intermission.

The Hoyas showed marked improvement in the second half while JMU struggled and only scored twice. The Dukes again opened scoring, this time nearly six minutes into the half when senior attack Jessica Brownridge found the back of the net.

The Hoyas responded by putting together a five-goal string to take a 12-7 advantage. Fried said that, as has been this season’s norm, his Hoyas showed themselves to be a second-half team, though he could not pinpoint the difference between periods.

“I wish I knew so I could bottle it,” Fried said. “We come out with a little bit more fire. It seems like our team is pretty cerebral, so we’re trying to feel out the other team, and then once we feel them out, we get in our stride. It’d be nice if we could hit our stride a little earlier, though.”

Senior attacks Sarah Oliphant and Hollis Pica combined for the first goal of the half for Georgetown as Oliphant took a feed from Pica on a fast-break opportunity. Junior mid Paige Andrews scored her fourth goal of the season, and three minutes later Stanwick scored on an empty net. JMU senior goalkeeper Amy Altig ran the ball out to the 12-meter arc and Georgetown senior attack Catherine Elbe picked off her pass, getting the ball to Stanwick, who got to the goal before Altig did.

Georgetown senior midfielder Allison Chambers tallied her second of the game on a free-position shot, and Stanwick put in the Hoyas’ fifth of the half with 11:06 remaining. Action at both ends of the field stalled until JMU sophomore midfielder Kelly Berger put in her second of the game with 2:26 to play, cutting the lead to 12-8. Bernier answered for the Hoyas, closing out scoring for a 13-8 final.

Georgetown’s goaltending duties were again split between senior Sarah Robinson and sophomore Maggie Koch. Robinson made five saves on 11 shots in the first half. Koch continues to play well in the goal, netting seven saves on nine shots in the second period.

The Hoyas have some time off before the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays (10-4, 3-2 American Lacrosse) come to town on May 7 for Georgetown’s final game of the regular season.

Eleventh-ranked Hopkins faces No. 10 Penn State this Saturday while Georgetown has more than a week off for practice.

“We have a couple of days off here to get everybody fresh,” Fried said. “The girls have exams coming up, so mentally and physically we have to get fresh and then next week start preparing for Hopkins.”

The final game of the season will honor the team’s seven seniors, who hope to be playing in the national championship game while their classmates are concluding graduation exercises on May 22. Fried, however, prefers to focus on the upcoming team, calling Hopkins “very athletic.”

“For them it’s a big game in the sense that if they don’t win, they’re playing for a spot in the playoffs. For us it’s a big game because we’re playing for a seed. If we went out and a couple other things happen, we could be a top-four seed and have two games at home,” Fried said. “We have our destiny in our own hands, so we just have to make sure we take care of business.”