Women's Lacrosse Season Review
05/18/2005 | Women's Lacrosse
May 18, 2005
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - In spite of early season struggles, the University of Richmond women's lacrosse team ended the year strong, capturing the program's first-ever Atlantic 10 Championship and advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history. The Spiders finished with a 9-8 mark, their third winning season under fourth-year head coach Sue Murphy, and posted a 5-2 mark in conference play.
Richmond opened the season with a 0-4 mark, dropping decisions to a trio of nationally-ranked teams, before earning its first win of the season against Old Dominion. After another win, over American, the Spiders lost three straight and opened conference play with a 0-2 record. Richmond came back to win its last five regular season games, including a win over nationally-ranked Temple, and earned the #4 seed in the Atlantic 10 Championships.
In the tournament's opening round, the Spiders recorded an 11-10 win, on a last second goal from junior Caroline McGuire, over top-seed Temple. The following night, Richmond became the first #4 seed to win the conference championship when they topped Duquesne 10-8 in the title contest. McGuire was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player and teammates Kristen Habicht, Jackie Swansburg and Ashley Friend were all named to the All-Tournament Team.
INDIVIDUAL REVIEW
#1 Morghan Vahue: Played in 16 games, started 12 contests ... ranked fourth on team with 13 goals ... recorded six assists ... finished with 19 points ... added 25 ground balls, 13 draw controls and six caused turnovers ... tallied one game-winning goal ... recorded one hat trick with four goals against Saint Joseph's (4/17) ... added two assists against Saint Joseph's for six points ... converted 6-12 free position attempts ... scored in nine contests.
#2 Kristen Berlacher: Appeared in 12 contests with two starts ... registered four ground balls ... recorded two caused turnovers.
#3 Christina D'Angelo: Played in 15 games and made 10 starts ... tallied four ground balls, one draw control and six caused turnovers.
#4 Caroline "Fe" Grumbine: Missed entire season due to injury.
#5 Jenna Hubbard: Played in 15 games with six starts ... scored seven goals ... ended with 12 points ... tallied one game-winning goal, against Old Dominion (3/16) ... recorded one hat trick ... scored multiple goals in three contests ... added ten ground balls, 11 draw controls and one caused turnover.
#6 Megan Riedy: Played in 16 contests, starting every one ... recorded 27 ground balls, 11 draw controls and 14 caused turnovers ... key part of Richmond's defense that held seven opponents to less than ten goals.
#7 Caroline McGuire: Started all 17 contests ... led team in scoring with 44 goals ... added one assist for a team-best 45 points ... tallied six game-winning goals ... scored multiple goals in 12 games ... recorded seven hat tricks ... also paced the squad in shots (110), ground balls (49), draw controls (37) and caused turnovers (32) ... tallied a season-high six points against Old Dominion (3/16) ... named the Atlantic 10 Championship's Most Outstanding Performer and selected to the All-Championship Team ... scored game-winning goal, with 17 seconds left, against top-seed Temple in the opening round of the conference tournament ... finished first in the league in caused turnovers and game-winning goals and seventh in goals ... named to womenslacrosse.com Honor Roll (5/9) ... 44 goals equaled program's second-best for single season ... currently ranks ninth for program's career goals (84).
#8 Mary Colleen Buettner: Appeared in two games ... recorded one ground ball and one draw control.
#10 Ashley Friend: Started all 17 games ... ranked third on the team with 26 goals ... added five assists for 31 total points ... went 7-7 on free position attempts ... added 28 ground balls, 19 draw controls and 12 caused turnovers ... scored in 15 games ... recorded four hat tricks ... named to Atlantic 10 All-Championship Team.
#11 Allison Nuzzi: Played in 15 games, starting 14 ... scored eight goals ... tied for first on team in assists with 11 ... ranked fourth with 19 points ... finished third in both ground balls (35) and caused turnovers (20) ... scored in seven games ... named to womenslacrosse.com Honor Roll (4/20) ... currently tied for fourth in program's record book in career assists (37).
#12 Kate Childrey: Appeared in two games ... registered one caused turnover.
#13 Zara Nematollahi: Played in two contests.
#14 Sue Taylor: Missed entire season due to injury.
#15 Tracy Fite: Played in one game.
#16 Sloan DeVilbiss: Appeared in two contests.
#17 Kristen Habicht: Started all 17 games ... ranked second on team with 33 goals and tied for first with 11 assists ... totaled 44 points ... converted 9-13 free position attempts ... ranked second on team in draw controls (27) and caused turnovers (21) ... recorded seven hat tricks ... scored in all but three contests ... named to Atlantic 10 All-Conference Team and selected to the All-Championship Team ... ended career ranked in three record book categories; tenth in goals (83), tenth in assists (23) and eighth in points (106).
#18 Caroline Coe: Played in four games ... recorded two ground balls.
#19 Jodi Brown: Started all 17 contests ... recorded 16 ground balls, two draw controls and six caused turnovers ... key part of Richmond's defense that held seven opponents to less than ten goals.
#20 Samantha Tract: Only freshman to start all 17 games ... scored one goal ... ranked second on team in ground balls (36) ... also contributed 17 draw controls and 15 caused turnovers ... scored first career goal in upset of nationally-ranked Temple (4/15).
#21 Sara Allen: Played in all 17 games with 16 starts ... scored seven goals ... added two assists for nine total points ... registered 20 ground balls, five caused turnovers and four draw controls ... scored in seven contests.
#22 Erin Kennedy: Appeared in all 17 games, made 16 starts ... tallied two goals ... added 20 ground balls, seven draw controls and six caused turnovers ... scored first career goal in upset of nationally-ranked Temple (4/15).
#24 Kristy Fairhurst: Played in four games.
#30 Sarah Ingle: Appeared in six games ... recorded one ground ball.
#31 Kirby Thalenberg: Played in three games ... contributed one ground ball.
#33 Claire Cunniff: Played in all 17 games, making ten starts ... led all freshman with eight goals ... added two assists for ten points ... contributed 20 ground balls, 20 draw controls and one caused turnover ... tallied one game-winning goal, against American (3/20) ... converted 2-6 free position attempts.
#39 Jackie Swansburg: Started all 17 games ... played 1020:00 minutes in the net ... recorded 156 saves ... posted a GAA of 10.7 ... recorded a save percentage of .445 ... named to the Atlantic 10 All-Championship Team ... earned A-10 Player of the Week honors (4/18) ... made 10+ saves in eight games ... ranked fifth in the league in GAA.