No. 9 Women's Lacrosse Heads North For A-10 Play This Weekend
04/13/2006 | Women's Lacrosse
April 13, 2006
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - After a dominating 13-2 victory over the Temple Owls and a 15-5 triumph over UMass last weekend, the ninth-ranked University of Richmond women's lacrosse team will now travel up north to continue Atlantic 10 competition. The Spiders, now 11-2 overall and 3-0 in A-10 play, will face the Duquesne Dukes in a rematch of last year's A-10 Championship game on Friday at 4:00 p.m. at the Arthur J. Rooney Athletic Field before playing the St. Bonaventure Bonnies on Sunday at 11:00 a.m. at Charles Major Field.
As a team and individually, the Spiders are off to their best start ever and have made distinct marks on the conference and on the country, from taking down No. 7 Virginia to winning ten-straight contests to having individual Spiders receive both A-10 and national recognition. Since opening the season, the Spiders have captured a combined total of eight A-10 Rookie and Player of the Week honors, as well as one Inside Lacrosse National Player of the Week and one Honorable Mention honor, and one womenslacrosse.com honor roll.
Senior Caroline McGuire, who was recently named to the WomensLacrosse.com Honor Roll, currently leads all Spiders with 37 goals, including eight hat tricks, followed by Richmond's sister act, comprised of freshman Mandy Friend with 36 goals and eight hat tricks and junior Ashley Friend with 31 goals and five hat tricks . The Spiders currently rank fifth in the nation for win percentage (.846), 10th for scoring offense (13.387 gpg) and scoring margin (5.08), 12th for scoring defense (8.31), and 17th for caused turnovers (10.62). Additionally, Spider keeper Jackie Swansburg ranks third for save percentage (.563) and 12th for goals against average (8.31).
The Dukes (7-3, 0-1 in A-10) have won five of their last six games and just opened A-10 play on Friday with an 8-10 loss to La Salle. Led by Kelly Mulford with 26 goals and Courtney Tamasitis with 22 goals, Duquesne is returning 13 players from last year's squad that recorded a 13-4 record and tied for first the A-10 with a 6-1 mark.
The Spiders currently lead the Duquesne-Richmond all-time series 3-2 with the Spiders posting the last win, which was a 10-9 victory over the Dukes in the 2005 A-10 Championship game.
Following Friday's contest, the Spiders will continue up north to Olean, N.Y. for a contest with the St. Bonaventure Bonnies on Sunday at 11:00 a.m. Live coverage for Friday's game will be available at www.RichmondSpiders.com.