No. 16 Field Hockey To Host Lock Haven In NCAA Play-In Game
11/06/2006 | Field Hockey
Nov. 6, 2006
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - The 16th-ranked Richmond Spider field hockey squad, fresh off their fifth-straight Atlantic 10 Championship, will host Lock Haven in a 2006 NCAA Play-In game, Nov. 7, at 1 p.m. on Crenshaw Field. For Richmond, the contest will mark the fifth-straight season it has hosted the contest which determines an automatic qualifier to the NCAA Championships Field of 16.
The Spiders, winners of their previous 11, and 13 of their last 14, remain at Crenshaw Field where they captured their fifth-straight Atlantic 10 Championship over the weekend. Richmond ended the regular season with an undefeated conference mark for the fifth-straight season and ran its A-10 unbeaten streak to 42-straight by earning the A-10 crown.
Junior Shannon Taylor, the Atlantic 10 Offensive Player of the Year, leads the squad with 28 goals in 20 games, which ranks fourth nationally with a 1.40 goals-per-game average. Her 3.20 point-per-game average also ranks fourth in the country. Taylor, a native of Midlothian, Va., notched the Spiders' game-winner in overtime against Temple in the Altantic 10 semifinal, Friday, marking her team-leading sixth game-winner. The goal also gave her 134 career points which ranks tops all-time at Richmond.
Senior Heather Wrublesky, a Second Team All-Atlantic 10 selection this season, has posted a goal in each of the last four for Richmond. The Langhorne, Pa., native scored the game-tying goal with 36 seconds remaining in regulation helping the Spiders' to a semifinal win over Temple. The following day, Wrublesky notched the game-winner in the championship final over Saint Joseph's and earned the Tournament's Most Outstanding Performer honor. Wrublesky has 12 goals on the season and ranks third on the team with 29 points.
The Spiders are 3-1 in play-in games dating back to the 2002 season. Richmond's only loss in its four play-in contests came in 2003, falling to Cal, 2-1. That same season, Richmond earned an at-large bid and travelled to Old Dominion. In their three play-in wins the Spiders have outscored opponents 13-3, including a 7-2 win over Sacred Heart in 2005.
Richmond has met Lock Haven twice in school history, but has never beaten the Lady Eagles. The most recent meeting against Lock Haven came in 1985 when the Spiders fell, 3-1, in Harrisonburg, Va. Two years prior to that meeting, Richmond dropped a 1-0 contest to Lock Haven in Harrisonburg, Va.
The winner of Tuesday's contest will receive an automatic bid into the NCAA Championships Field of 16, which begins play Saturday, Nov. 11. At-large and automatic bids into the NCAA Championships will be released during a live broadcast on CSTV at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday evening. Be sure to logon to Richmond's official athletics website -- RichmondSpiders.com for all the latest information on Spider field hockey.