Field Hockey Edged By No. 20 Liberty In NCAA Play-In

Wednesday, November 12

Lynchburg, Va.

2:00 PM

University of Richmond

(12-9)

No. 20 Liberty

(11-10)

OT 2

Richmond

Massachusetts

11/12/2014 | Field Hockey

Box Score

By: Richmond Athletics

LYNCHBURG, Va. – The Richmond field hockey team was edged by the No. 20 Liberty Flames, 3-1, in a NCAA Play-In game Wednesday afternoon at the Liberty Field Hockey Field.

“Liberty is an outstanding program,” commented Richmond head coach Gina Lucido. “We knew that basically who ever was going to win this game it was going to be within inches. Absolute credit to them, if my season was going to go out I couldn't find another program to lose to.”

The A-10 10 Champions impressive season came to a halt as the Spiders finished with a 12-10 overall record, while Liberty (14-7), the NorPac Champions, will head to the NCAA First Round in Chapel Hill, N.C.

The Spiders found themselves behind 2-0 early off back-to-back goals in the first half, but retaliated at the 20:35 mark. Senior Helen Warner sent a long ball in the circle and sophomore Emma Johansson gave a one-touch that hit the upper left corner to cut the Flame lead to one.

The first half was pretty much even as Liberty took six shots, while Richmond fired off five with four on goal.

“At halftime we were absolutely still competing to win,” added Lucido. “We came out and changed some things up and made some really good adjustments in the second half. We pulled our goalie at the end and I was really hoping to get a corner at some point and put some attacking pressure and go one goal at a time, but it didn't happen for us today.”

The Spiders came out hungry in the final 35 minutes as they were rewarded two corners but could not get passed the Liberty goalkeeper Mallory Cuccio. Richmond pulled the A-10 Most Outstanding Player, Kelley Wentling, with eight minutes to go but it was not enough.

Liberty hit its final goal to secure the contest at the 48:38 mark.

Wentling finished the year with an 11-8 record as she stopped two Liberty shots.

Senior and A-10 Offensive Player of the Year Rebecca Barry and Johansson who both fired off two shots apiece led Richmond.

“The future is always incredibly bright for Richmond hockey. This program is just founded on dreaming big. Just because we won (the A-10) this past year, the hunger will continue to push beyond that,” closed Lucido.