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.