University of Richmond
La Salle
No. 11 Field Hockey Tops La Salle, 6-1
10/17/2004 | Field Hockey
Oct. 17, 2004
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - The 11th-ranked Richmond field hockey team posted its sixth-straight win by topping La Salle, 6-1, Sunday afternoon. The win at Richmond's Crenshaw Field moved the Spiders to 12-2 overall and 4-0 in the Atlantic 10. The Explorers fell to 5-10 and 1-2 in the league.
"I thought we played a good game, but not a great game," head coach Ange Bradley said. "I think we have to learn when we have a chance to dominate we need to step up and do it."
On the heels of an 8-1 win against West Chester yesterday afternoon, the Spiders took a 1-0 lead at the 10:06 mark thanks to freshman Shannon Taylor. The Midlothian, Va., native maneuvered through a crowd at the top of the circle to a shot just in front of the goal. Nine minutes later the Spiders received a penalty corner opportunity. Junior Holly Cram fired the initial shot, but junior Whitney Wells was there to gather the rebound and shoot home her eighth of the season.
Late in the first half Richmond posted a third goal by converting on one of its five first-half penalty corners. Cram scored the goal after juniors Allie Howard and Michelle La Force made a clean push and stop for the assists.
After the break, the Spiders came out on fire by scoring three goals in just over 2:30 seconds. Cram recorded a one-timer on assist from sophomore Heather Wrublesky. Less than a minute later sophomore Amanda Florio converted a Richmond fast break when she scored off a pass from Taylor. Junior Jess Stern then put the Spiders up 6-0 at the 40:44 mark with a successful penalty stroke.
La Salle got on the board in the 60th minute when it converted its only corner opportunity of the game. Allison Geiger received a push from Colleen Nesbitt and fired it past UR's Sarah Abboud for the score.
The Spiders limited the Explorers to just two shots the entire game, marking the second-lowest offensive output for a Richmond opponent this season. Junior Michelle Swartz, who picked up her 12th win of the season, stopped only one shot on goal, while La Salle's starter, Colleen Bolger stopped nine in 50+ minutes.
The Spiders now have won their last 17 regular season A-10 contests and their last 20 Atlantic 10 games including tournament matches.
"Our goal is to take it one game at a time," Bradley said. "We turn the page each day and now we have to prepare for our upcoming grass game at Rhode Island."
The Spiders hit the road next weekend for two conference matches. Richmond will face Rhode Island, Saturday, Oct. 23 at noon, then take on UMass in Amherst, Mass., Sunday, Oct. 24 at noon.
