University of Richmond
10-8
Duquesne University
9-9
Women's Lacrosse Advances To A-10 Championship Game
05/02/2015 | Women's Lacrosse
A stretch of four-straight goals to end the first half put Richmond up for good and the second-seeded Spiders advanced to the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship game after an 11-9 win over third-seeded Duquesne in the second semifinal of the tournament, hosted by George Washington. Richmond will face top-seeded Massachusetts in the final on Sunday.
UR is now 10-8 on the season, advancing to the title game for the fifth time in the past six seasons. Duquesne has its season end at 9-9.
The Spiders and Dukes traded goals throughout the first 15 minutes of the first half, but senior Anna Jeszeck's (Cortlandt Manor, New York) first goal of the game tied the score at three with 9:30 to go in the half, and Richmond reeled two more goals in the last four minutes of the period to pull away.
Just like she did to start the first half, junior Charlett Stevenson (Danien, Connecticut) scored the first goal of the second half when she got tripped up sprinting ahead of the pack with the ball and was awarded a free position shot for the team's fourth consecutive goal and a 6-3 lead.
After the Dukes answered with a goal a little more than a minute later, junior Brooke Wilson (Ijamsville, Maryland) scored her game-high-tying third goal of the game on a free position shot to push the Spiders lead to three and two minutes later, senior Emily Doyle (Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey) found classmate Bailey Zerr (Denver, Colorado) for the 8-4 lead.
The teams traded two goals each over the next 10 minutes until a big save from senior goalie Emily Boyce (Middletown, Maryland) turned into a ground ball and sprint down the field from Jeszeck. In drawing defensive attention, Jeszeck fired to a streaking Emily Newman (New Albany, Ohio) for the goal and the largest lead of the day at 11-6.
The Dukes were able to chip away with three goals to end the game, but the Spiders possessed well enough to get the win and advance.
Richmond outshot the Dukes 27-22 in the game and caused nine of Duquesne's 16 turnovers in the victory.
Jeszeck led all players with four points on two goals and two assists. Boyce was credited with nine saves in the win (10-8).
Freshman Caroline Queally (Riverside, Connecticut) won four of Richmond's nine draws in the contest.
The Championship game, at the GW Athletics Complex on the Mt. Vernon Campus, begins at noon on Sunday. Massachusetts has been Richmond's opponent in all five of the Championship matchups since 2009.
Third-year head coach Allison Kwolek has helped the Spiders reach double-digits wins in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2006 and 2007.
