University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Duquesne
Spiders Rally To Down Duquesne In OT
03/29/2009 | Women's Lacrosse
March 29, 2009
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va.-Senior Mandy Friend scored the game-winner in overtime as Richmond erased a four-goal deficit to defeat Duquesne, 14-13 Sunday afternoon at First Market Stadium.
"This team is a bunch of fighters," said assistant coach Allison Nuzzi. "I couldn't ask for anything more. We had huge draw controls in overtime that set up key possessions. A lot of players stepped up today."
The Spiders trailed by as many as four goals in the second half, before their comeback surge. Freshman Mary Flowers started the rally with an unassisted goal with 20 minutes remaining to put the Spiders back to a 10-7 deficit.
Freshman Caitlin Fifield scored the next two goals to cut the deficit to 10-9. Sophomore Danielle Schaevitz scored the equalizer with 12 minutes remaining. Duquesne responded after a called timeout with three consecutive goals to take a 13-10 advantage with six minutes left.
Fifield scored from a Friend assist to put the score back at 13-11. Freshman Sam Tajirian scored with 30 seconds left to cut the deficit to 13-12. Sophomore Anne Ryan scored the equalizer with 22 seconds left to knot the score at 13-all.
Friend scored the winning goal with 1:28 in the second of two three-minute overtimes.
"We said conference was where we were going to turn it around," said Friend. "Starting with two wins is huge. We're going up from here and we don't plan to stop."
Fifield led the Spiders with four goals. Friend and Tajirian followed with three goals apiece.
"This was a big hill to overcome," said Fifield. "We pulled out a win and we know we have to keep this going."
Richmond returns to action next Friday at UMass. Game time is set for 3 p.m.
