It’s Mollywood at UNC Wilmington. We’re just living in it.

Freshman Molly McGarry further strengthened her Colonial Athletic Association Rookie-of-the-Year case with a goal in UNCW’s 3-0 win over James Madison (7-5, 2-1 CAA) on Thursday night.

Her goal in the 55th minute was her fifth of the year, two short of the CAA lead held by Hofstra’s Kristin Desmond. The freshman previously won back-to-back CAA Rookie of the Week honors and continued to put shots in the goal for the Seahawks (5-6-2, 1-1-1) against the Dukes.

“It’s the same thing every week. You just go to practice, you do your best, you give your all,” said McGarry. “JMU’s a fantastic team, we definitely didn’t expect the result we got. It was just a lot of good things for us today.”

Many good things went well for the Seahawks. After failing to win either game in their opening conference road trip a week ago, it was scheduled to be a tall order to beat the Dukes, who were undefeated in CAA play and blanked the Seahawks 4-0 in 2016.

“Coming back home for a young team, it was important to get a win,” said UNCW coach Paul Cairney. “James Madison is good. They start the game in high gear. You saw them try to do it tonight. They were trying to force the issue, everything was fast.”

Senior forward Serenity Waters was not to be forgotten. After assisting on sophomore Dominique Martinez’s goal, Waters flushed the Dukes out of Wilmington with a goal of her own in the 86th minute.

The Seahawks played one of their best games of the year when veteran leadership and youthful aggression came together to pull the team’s record a game within .500. With six regular-season games left, UNCW still has time to turn a developmental season into something bigger.

“We’ve just got to focus on the next practice,” said Waters. “Like [Coach] Paul says to get better at the next practice and focus on winning the next game. It’s just keeping your head on straight and not focusing on what’s happened in the past.”

Assistant Sports Editor Brandon Sans can be found on Twitter @Bsans10. Any tips or suggestions should be forwarded via email to [email protected]. For video updates from The Seahawk, subscribe to our YouTube channel.