University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
9-9
George Mason (A-10 Semifinals)
12-5
Spiders Advance To A-10 Title Game With Win Over Patriots
05/06/2016 | Women's Lacrosse
PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The University of Richmond women's lacrosse team wasn't going to let its low seeding in the Atlantic 10 tournament bring them down.
The sixth-seeded Spiders mounted a comeback in their semifinal game against No. 2 seed George Mason and defeated the Patriots, 12-10, to advance to Sunday's A-10 Championship Game.
Senior Brooke Wilson led Richmond with five points on three goals and two assists, adding a game-high four caused turnovers on the defensive end. Junior Natalia Chaney and sophomore Kim Egizi each tallied three points apiece.
“I think that's the senior leadership coming out of Brooke,” head coach Allison Kwolek said. “We needed her to be a prominent player on the field and she stepped up and helped take over the game when she needed to.”
Mason got off to a hot start, putting the Spiders on their heels and scoring four straight goals to take an early 4-0 lead.
“We were sort of surprised when we came out at first and were a little flat,” Wilson said. “We knew that we needed the draw to get our offense into flow. Once we were able to get possession, we just ran with it from there.”
Richmond was sparked by Wilson, who put the Spiders on the board on an unassisted score with just under eight minutes left to play in the first half. Two minutes later, Egizi scored off of an assist from Wilson to make the score 4-2 in favor of the Patriots.
Mason extended their lead to three goals with 4:14 remaining in the opening frame, but Emily Newman netted her first goal of the game off of a Hope D'Orsi assist to make the score 5-3 with just over two minutes left in the half.
The Patriots looked like they would take a 6-3 lead into that half when they scored with 51 seconds left, but Wilson notched her second goal of the day with just four ticks remaining to make it a two-goal game entering the break.
The Spiders used the momentum gained from Wilson's late first-half goal to score three straight to start the second half. D'Orsi started the scoring with an unassisted goal just over two minutes into the half before Newman scored her second goal of the game off of a free-position shot just over a minute later. Chaney then got on the board with her first goal of the day on an assist from Egizi to give Richmond a 7-6 lead.
Mason was able to get two goals back to retake a one-goal advantage, but Mia Castagnero scored her team-leading 41st goal of the seasonon a free-position opportunity to tie the game at eight goals apiece.
The back-and-forth play ensued when Mason scored twice in under two minutes to take a 10-8 lead, but those would be the Patriots' final two goals of the game as the Richmond defense was able to hold off their attack for the final 14 minutes of play.
Wilson scored her third goal of the game with 13:47 left to play and Chaney scored her second goal to tie the game, 10-10, less than 30 second later. Egizi would score the eventual game winner with 8:22 left on the clock on a free-position shot, before Chaney posted a hat trick with a goal with 5:51 remaining on Wilson's second assist of the day.
The Spiders will face top-seeded UMass in Sunday's championship game, as the Minutewomen defeated fourth-seeded Saint Joseph's, 13-8, in the second semifinal game. Game time at Rooney Field is set for 12 p.m.
“We've talked all year about making sure we're focused on ourselves and what we need to do,” Kwolek added. “We need to put together a great game on Sunday by doing all of the little things.”
