University of Richmond
West Chester
Field Hockey's Streak Halted At 44-Straight
10/12/2007 | Field Hockey
Oct. 12, 2007
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - The Richmond field hockey team gave up three goals in the first 20 minutes of Friday's game and a comeback bid that pulled the Spiders within one goal just was not enough in a 4-2 loss to West Chester on Friday afternoon at Crenshaw Field.
The loss snapped five-time Atlantic 10 Champion Richmond's 44-game unbeaten streak against Atlantic 10 opponents, dating back to the 2001 season.
"I really applaud West Chester, they were tough, strong, fierce and really attacked from the get-go," Richmond head coach Gina Lucido said. "In the building year that it is, I don't take anything away from West Chester, but we've just been inconsistent and we're trying to find consistency in our play. We didn't deserve to win today and I don't think, for 70 minutes, that we played to create our success."
West Chester scored two goals in the first 6:33 and then and added a third 19:46 into the match to open up a 3-0 lead, with two of those goals coming on penalty corners.
The Spiders did start to turn the momentum in their favor and sophomore Adrian Pickar, the reigning Atlantic 10 Player of the Week, scored her fourth goal in three conference games to cut the gap to 3-1 with 5:14 left in the half.
In the beginning of the second half Richmond controlled play and seven minutes into the second session sophomore Jess Weidner scored her first career goal on an assist from sophomore Sarah Blythe-Wood to pull the Spiders within one at 3-2.
Richmond continued to put the pressure on and had several chances to tie the game, but with 13:11 left in the game, West Chester countered and Swayze scored off the rebound of her own shot to make it 4-2.
"We came back and fought hard and we did make a very good go at things," Lucido said. "But as people always say, it was too little too late. Hopefully we'll get tired of that happening to us and just find a way to come out of the gates and be much more consistent throughout our play."
The Spiders return to action on Sunday when they host La Salle at noon.
"We move on to La Salle and we will continue to preserver," Lucido said. "We look forward to better days for the program."
