Prillaman's Record-Tying Night Gives Spiders 4-2 Win Over JMU

Friday, August 26

Robins Stadium (Richmond, Va.)

7:30 PM

University of Richmond

2-1

James Madison

0-3

JMU

Richmond

Prillaman's Record-Tying Night Gives Spiders 4-2 Win Over JMU

08/27/2016 | Women's Soccer

Box Score

By: Richmond Athletics

UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. – The fireworks at Robins Stadium aren't scheduled until next Saturday, but the University of Richmond women's soccer team got the show started early with a dominating 4-2 home opening win over in-state rival JMU on Friday night.

Junior Lexi Prillaman tied a program record with four goals on the night, tying Brooke Sands' 19-year old mark. Nearly half of this year's Spider roster wasn't born when Sands set the mark on September 23, 1997 against Howard. It was the first Spider hat trick since Ashley Riefner's hat trick in a 3-2 win over Princeton on September 19, 2014. Prillaman has scored a goal in all three of Richmond's games this season.

“I guess my shot was just on tonight, but honestly, if it wasn't for the great passes from my teammates, I wouldn't have been able to score at all,” Prillaman said. “It was just a great team win, especially to start the season at home with such a great crowd.”

In her first home game at Robins Stadium, freshman Brooke Beam tallied two assists, while senior captain Meaghan Carrigan got into the point column as well, with two assists of her own.

“Obviously Lexi had a great night, but honestly, it was a great team win. The first half was really wide open on both sides and the second half, we were really able to control the game,” Head Coach Peter Albright said. “I'm really happy to start the season with such a good win against a quality opponent in front of a really great crowd that we'd love to have back out to our games the rest of the year.”

From the opening kickoff, the Spiders were aggressive, attacking the JMU net, forcing Olivia Miller, the Dukes keeper, to make seven first half saves.

JMU would find the back of the net first however as Allison Bortelli scored off a rebound opportunity in the 16^th minute.

The Spiders got even in the 26^th minute when Prillaman was taken down inside the box to draw a penalty kick. She then stepped up and buried it home to even the game at 1-1.

In the 34^th minute, a hard take down gave Lindsay Belli a long free kick that nearly snuck in the bottom corner of the net, but went just wide. Less than three minutes later, the Richmond defense came through with Katie Brennan making back-to-back diving saves to keep it tied at 1-1.

With just over six minutes left before half, Beam played a beautiful ball to Prillaman, who ripped it home to send the Spiders into the break with a 2-1 advantage.

Prillaman struck again just over three minutes into the second half when Carrigan fed Beam, who delivered a great feed to Prillaman, who chipped in her third goal of the night and gave the Spiders a 3-1 advantage.

Richmond would control tempo for much of the second half, but the Dukes got within one with just under 15 minutes to play.

Once again, the Spiders would answer and once again, it was Prillaman. The record-tying goal game less than a minute after JMU's goal on a feed from Carrigan to round out the scoring and secure the 4-2 win.

The Spiders are back in action next Friday when they take on Holy Cross as part of the VCU Invitational. Game time at SportsBackers Stadium is set for 5 p.m.