Women's Lacrosse Faces Dukes At A-10 Championships
04/30/2015 | Women's Lacrosse
After a 6-2 Atlantic 10 Conference regular season, the Richmond women's lacrosse team will have a rematch with Duquesne Friday at 3:30 p.m. in the second semifinal of the A-10 Championships, hosted by George Washington.
The rematch pits two teams that play similar styles of tough defense and meticulous offense. The original matchup, which was on senior day for the Spiders on April 19, came down to an exciting save from Richmond senior goalie Emily Boyce (Middletown, Maryland) on a free position shot awarded with one second remaining in regulation in the 10-9 Richmond win at Robins Stadium. It was Richmond's first regular-season win against the Dukes among the current crop of players.
The last time the teams were matched up against one another in the A-10 Tournament was when Richmond hosted in 2012. The Spiders avenged the regular-season and took out the Dukes 17-11 in the semifinals to advance UR to the Championship game at the time in its third-straight season.
Richmond has won its semifinal game and advanced to the title game in four of the past five years.
Richmond enters the tournament with the second-best draw control average (12.71 per game) and the second-fewest goals allowed (9.71) in the regular season among A-10 squads. The Dukes were last in winning the draw (10.53) and in the middle of the pack in almost every statistical category.
Richmond senior attack Emily Doyle (Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey) is having another good statistical season to cap off a masterful career. Already the school's all-time career assist leader, she became the first player to reach 100 assists in her career. She now sits at 102 so far. She ranks second in the league with 30 helpers and second in points, with 59. Her assists total puts her in the Top 20 in the country. She also leads the team with 29 goals. Fellow senior Bailey Zerr (Denver, Colorado) is right behind Doyle with 28 goals, while freshman Kim Egizi (Westwood, Massachusetts) is second on the squad with 18 assists and 40 points.
Five Spiders have 22 or more goals and 25 or more points with a balanced attack.
Doyle and Egizi account for 31 of the 38 assists that the Spiders have in their eight conference games this season.
Doyle and junior Charlett Stevenson (Darien, Connecticut) had three goals each in the win over Duquesne. Zerr added two goals, while Egizi had a pair of assists.
The Dukes were led by three goals each from Kaelin Shaw and Michelle Morris.
Duquesne goalie Jenna Bishop ranks third in the league with a 9.75 goals against average, exactly a half-goal per game behind Richmond's Boyce.
The winner of this semifinal faces the winner of the game before, when top-seeded Massachusetts faces fourth-seeded George Mason. Those two teams repreent the two losses in league for the Spiders. The Championship game will be contested at noon on Sunday in the nation's capital. All of the games will be streamed live on the Atlantic 10 Digital Network.
