Spiders End Historic Season in NCAA Tournament Loss to Northwestern

Friday, May 11

Towson, Md.

6PM

University of Richmond

16-4

#9 Northwestern

14-5

Richmond

Northwestern

Photo by: Gail Burton

Spiders End Historic Season in NCAA Tournament Loss to Northwestern

05/11/2018 | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score

TOWSON, Md. – The University of Richmond women's lacrosse team had a strong offensive showing against No. 9 Northwestern, but a powerhouse offense would seal the Spiders' fate and send the Wildcats on to the next round with a 24-18 NCAA First Round win.

The Wildcats started strong on offense, scoring the opening three goals to jump out to an early lead.

Katie Sciandra opened the scoring for the Spiders on an unassisted goal, but Northwestern scored again to retake a three-goal lead.

Kim Egizi scored her first of the day, before assisting on Madison Ostrick's goal to make it 4-3. The Wildcats then scored three straight and looked to be pulling away, but the Spiders rebounded with three goals of their own – two from Sciandra and one from Marissa Brown.

The two squads traded goals over the next five minutes, with Egizi and Mia Castagnero each scoring for the Spiders, but the powerful Northwestern offense took hold of the game, logging six-straight tallies and taking a 15-8 lead into the break.

Senior Caroline Queally provided a first half highlight for the Spiders, winning five draw controls to reach 106 on the year and setting another program record for single-season draw control wins. This is the third time Queally has broken the record in her career at Richmond.

The Spiders came out firing in the second half, getting two more goals from Sciandra and another from Egizi to cut into the Northwestern lead.

After the Wildcats got one back, Brown and Sciandra each scored again to make it 16-13. Another Northwestern goal and Brown's third of the day kept it at a three-goal game, before the Wildcats scored twice to take a 19-14 advantage.

Castagnero stopped the Northwestern run with her second tally of the day, but the Wildcat offense came storming back with three goals in a row. Sciandra then scored her seventh goal of the evening to once again cut into the lead, but another Northwestern goal less than a minute later extended the Spider deficit back out to seven. Sciandra's seven goals on the day brought her season total to 67, a new single-season program record.

Castagnero and Brown each scored in the closing minutes, but it wasn't enough as Northwestern came away with the 24-18 win in the highest-scoring game in NCAA Tournament history.

The Spiders wrap up a historic season, tying the program best record of 16-4 and advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007.