BALTIMORE, Md. - Towson University women's lacrosse sophomore Kiley Keating made 12 saves while red-shirt senior Gabby Cha had three goals and senior Kaitlyn Montalbano had three points as the Tigers posted a 9-8 win over No. 25 Johns Hopkins Wednesday at Homewood Field.

Towson (14-2) won its its ninth-straight game while tying the best start to a season in program history with its 14th win in the first 16 games.

How It Happened

• The Blue Jays (9-7) scored the game's first two goals just 1:19 apart to take a 2-0 lead with 26:17 to play in the first half.
• The Tigers answered with back-to-back goals from Cha and junior Carly Tellekamp to tie the game at 2-2 with 17:42 left.
• The game featured two more ties at 3-3 and 4-4 with Montalbano and sophomore Annie Sachs scoring back-to-back before senior Emily Gillingham scored with 5:59 remaining to give Towson the lead for good, 5-4.
• Cha followed with her second goal of the game of an assist from Montalbano to give the Tigers a 6-4 halftime lead.
• The first half was extremely close statistically with Towson holding a 16-15 edge in shots and a 7-4 margin in draw controls while Hopkins held an 8-7 advantage in ground balls.
• The biggest difference was on free position shots where the Blue Jays were 0-for-7.
• Hopkins opened the scoring just 1:09 into the second half to pull back within one, but that would be as close as it would get as the Tigers had an answer for each Blue Jay goal.
• Montalbano scored on a free position with 25:41 remaining before Cha netted her third of the game of an assist from sophomore Shelby Stack with 19:14 to play after Hopkins scored again to pull within one.
• The Blue Jays scored with 16:26 left to cut the Towson lead to 8-7, but junior Natalie Sulmonte scored with 13:47 remaining to push the margin back to two, 9-7.
• From there, the Towson defense held Hopkins scoreless for 15:02 until it scored with 1:24 to play to again pull within one.
• After the Blue Jays won the ensuing draw, they had a chance to tie the game, but the Tigers forced a turnover and junior Meg Lynch picked up the ground ball, giving Towson possession with just 26 seconds left.
• However, Hopkins forced a turnover with seven seconds remaining and had a second chance to tie the game, but a turnover and offsides call gave the ball back to the Tigers with less than one second to go.

Inside the Numbers

• Towson's current nine-game win streak is its longest since the team won 10-straight during the 2012 season en route to winning the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) championship and a 16-4 record.
• The win tied the 2016 team who also started the season 14-2 en route to the program's seventh CAA title and a 16-4 record.
• The Tigers extended their road winning streak to six.
• The win was the 99th for head coach Sonia LaMonica in eight seasons at Towson where she is 99-50 (.664).
• Towson has now won three-straight against Johns Hopkins and the last two at Homewood Field.
• Gillingham extended her goal scoring streak to 24 games. Montalbano has scored a goal in 15-straight games while Cha has scored a goal in each of her last 10 games.
• With two goals, Montalbano moved past Nikki Marcinik into sixth place in program history with 126 career goals. She also played in her 73rd career game, moving her into a tie for seventh in program history with Kelly Murkey.
• Meanwhile, Gillingham played in her 72nd career game, moving her into a tie for ninth in program history with Kelly McQuilkin, Jackie LaMonica and Hillary Fratzke.
• Cha posted her third hat trick of the season and her 10th multi-goal game out of 13 this season.
• Keating totaled 10 or more saves for the fifth time this season and posted the third-highest total of her career. She had 14 against Delaware and 13 at No. 6 Florida.
• Towson held the Blue Jays to just 1-of-10 on free position shots while forcing 20 turnovers, including 14 in the second half. The Tigers are 4-0 this season when they allow one free position goal and 4-0 when they don't allow any.
• Towson is now 3-2 against nationally-ranked opponents this season.
• The Tigers are now 14-1 when leading at the half this season. They are also 5-1 when their opponent scores first and 9-0 when they hold their opponents to nine goals or less.

Up Next for Towson

• The Tigers host No. 4 James Madison on Saturday for senior day beginning at 2 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on Lax Sports Network.
• Both teams are 5-0 in the CAA and the winner will earn the regular season title and the top-seed in next week's CAA Women's Lacrosse Championship at James Madison.
• The Dukes posted a 9-5 victory at home a year ago.