Field Hockey Opens Atlantic 10 Tournament At UMass Friday
11/05/2009 | Field Hockey
Nov. 5, 2009
AMHERST, Mass. - The Atlantic 10 Regular-Season Champion Richmond field hockey team will look to win the conference tournament this weekend at the University of Massachusetts.
The Spiders have won six of the last eight Atlantic 10 regular season titles and will now look to make it six of the last A-10 Tournament titles. As the top seed, the Spiders (11-8, 5-1 Atlantic 10) will play No. 19 ranked Massachusetts (12-8, 3-3 Atlantic 10), the host and fourth seed.
Richmond, which enters the A-10 Tournament having won seven of the last nine games, defeated UMass in Amherst on Oct. 23 1-0 on a goal by sophomore Katelin Peterson.
The Spiders have won 59 of last 65 games against Atlantic 10 teams, but have had their season ended by the Minutewomen in each of the past two seasons. UMass defeated Richmond 2-0 in last year's A-10 title game and 2-1 in the 2007 A-10 semifinals.
Richmond is led by senior Sarah Blythe-Wood, who has an Atlantic 10-leading 19 goals, which ranks fourth on the school's single-season list. Blythe-Wood is fourth on Richmond's single-season points list with 48, is tied for sixth on Richmond's career list for points (84), and seventh on the career list for goals (33).
Blythe-Wood is 15th in the country in points per game (2.47) and is 16th in the nation in goals per game (1.00).
Senior teammate Megan Thompson is eight on Richmond's all-time points list (79) and eighth in goals (31).
The winner of the UMass-Richmond winner will play the winner of Saint Joseph's and Temple on Saturday at 3 p.m.