University of Richmond Athletics
Men's Lacrosse Schedules For 2016 Challenges
11/05/2015 | Men's Lacrosse
Richmond men's lacrosse head coach Dan Chemotti announces the docket for the 2016 season, the third in program history. A home game against in-state program Virginia, and road tilts at ACC foes North Carolina and Duke face the Spiders in addition to their expanded Southern Conference slate as they continue to progress as a Division I lacrosse program.
The Virginia game, the second time the Cavaliers will make the trip to Robins Stadium, will be featured on Saturday, April 2. The Cavaliers, ranked number seven at the time, were the first-ever regular season opponent for Richmond, playing to more than 4,500 fans at Robins Stadium in a 13-12 UVa. win on February 8, 2014.
In just two seasons, the Spiders have won a conference championship, made the NCAA Tournament, and also put together a perfect league record for a regular-season title. Richmond has reached a winning overall program record of 17-16 after its second season. After a six-win inaugural season, the Spiders won 11 games in 2015, with three of their five losses coming against ranked opponents.
“Putting together a schedule can often be compared to fitting puzzle pieces together and our program is excited about the final product for this coming 2016 season,” said Chemotti. “There is no doubt that our conference games will continue to be highly competitive, especially since our league has continued to grow both in size and talent. Out of conference, we have kept some budding rivalries and added some new opponents to make our toughest schedule to date. We have a lot of respect for every team on our schedule and we look forward to the challenges ahead.”
The Spiders also face a newly expanded Southern Conference, adding an eighth team, Air Force, which the Spiders get at home to finish the home slate. Richmond gets four of the seven league games at home after finishing with a perfect 6-0 mark in SoCon games, hosting the league's tournament by virtue of winning the top seed last year. Wanting the tournament at a set location, the league's head coaches selected Richmond to host the Conference Championships for three years, starting in 2016.
Richmond will begin the regular season with a pair of road games, at first-time opponent Fairfield and a repeat matchup with UMBC, before opening up Robins Stadium with a pair of home contests, hosting Mount St. Mary's on Tuesday, February 23 and that Saturday against Marquette. The Spiders faced both last season.
The SoCon schedule begins with a road game at VMI on March 5 and the road trip continues on a Monday, with a first-ever meeting at Duke, where Chemotti played his college lacrosse.
The home league schedule begins with a Saturday, March 12 game versus Jacksonville at 1 p.m. and the Spiders take their first trip to North Carolina the following Saturday, after hosting the Tar Heels in their first-ever meeting in 2015.
Sunday, March 27, will bring a home game with High Point, the team Richmond has faced in the last two SoCon Championship title games, with the teams splitting those results. That leads to the home date with Virginia on April 2.
The Spiders go to Furman before home games with Bellarmine and Air Force the next two Saturdays, both teams making their first visit to Robins Stadium, as the Spiders have played at each team previously on the road. Air Force was the sight of Richmond's first-ever postseason game, at the end of the 2014 season when the Spiders won the SoCon Championship. The Spiders defeated the Knights 11-6 in Louisville last year in Bellarmine's first year of league membership.
Richmond finishes the season at Mercer on April 30 before the SoCon Championships head back to Robins Stadium in the first weekend of May.
Richmond led the nation in clearing percentage (0.920), while finishing second nationally in scoring defense, allowing just 7.44 goals per game. The Spiders were ranked first in 10 of the 15 statistical categories the SoCon tracked and earned its first national ranking in 2015.
