Women’s lacrosse junior attacker Jamie Bumgardner etched her name into the GW record books last week. Not once, but twice.
With a 12-point, six-assist performance in the Colonials’ 21-10 defeat of Liberty, Bumgardner set new school records for points and assists in a single game.
Her record-breaking performance against Liberty earned her individual accolades, as the Atlantic 10 Player of the Week. But more importantly, her on-field presence has been a key factor in GW’s 3-2 start. The Colonials lead the A-10 in goals scored and are 13th in the NCAA in goals per game.
“It’s a great record, but I can’t really say that it’s solo by me. It’s my other attackers too, receiving the ball and finishing the shot,” Bumgardner said.
As someone who only discovered the game of lacrosse during her freshman year of high school, Bumgardner has made significant strides on the field.
Before she started playing lacrosse, the Hatfield, Pa. native’s main sport was fencing. However, the increased travel time for lacrosse forced her to slowly give up her original sport. After securing a spot on the junior varsity lacrosse team her freshman year, she traded her foil in for a stick permanently.
At GW, though, she went through a more than uneventful freshman season. Only five game appearances, one goal and just one assist. The sparse playing time makes the significant jump in production these past two years even more noteworthy.
Bumgardner, who also volunteered at the National Zoo as an animal keeper, started all 17 games for GW last season, recording at least one point in each of those games.
Last year, she tied the single-game assist record (5) that she just broke. It was a highlight in a stellar sophomore campaign that saw her lead the team with 57 points and eventually tie the single-season assist record (39) – good enough to lead the A-10 and rank T-14th in NCAA Division I.
“She is an exceptionally competitive and hardworking person, so she really wants to strive for perfection,” head coach Tara Hannaford said. “And when she has the right attitude there’s really no other way to describe it.”
The junior has picked up where she left off and then some. Going into the Colonials’ loss at Navy on Wednesday, she was leading the team in all three major offensive categories: goals (11), assists (16) and points (27). She additionally leads the country with 4 assists per game.
Even with all the work she has put in since beginning to play the sport and the impressive offensive numbers she has put up this year, Bumgardner recognizes that there is still much more work to be done.
“I worked really hard on my 1-v-1 game and really blocking out my defenders,” Bumgardner said. “We just keep getting better and keep developing.”
In the game against Liberty, for example, she said that the team had a sluggish start, but was able to pick things up in the second half, when she and her teammates started connecting. Bumgardner and Hannaford said those kind of mid-game adjustments need to continue as the team begins its way into the heart of the season.
Bumgardner and the Colonials return to action to play No. 17 Johns Hopkins at home on Saturday.
