Spiders Stifle George Mason For A-10 Championship Game Berth

Friday, April 26

Fairfax, VA

4PM

University of Richmond

16-3

George Mason

11-7

Richmond

George Mason

Spiders Stifle George Mason For A-10 Championship Game Berth

04/26/2019 | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score Photo Gallery

FAIRFAX, Va. – The University of Richmond women's lacrosse team dominated every minute of play in their Atlantic 10 Semifinal matchup with host George Mason, downing the Patriots 19-4 on Friday evening at George Mason Stadium.

With the win, the Spiders advance to Sunday's A-10 Championship game, where they will face off with top-seeded UMass for the sixth-straight year.

The Spiders tallied 19 goals on the day to set a new single-season goal record, totaling 289 on the season, while their 422 points are just five shy of the program record. With a 16-3 overall record in 2019, the Spiders have also tied the single-season win mark. The squad has also totaled 39 goals and 66 points in two games, both breaking A-10 Tournament records.

Senior Marissa Led the Spiders with eight points on four goals and four assists, totaling 45 helpers on the season to break her own single-season record of 44 that she set in 2016 as a sophomore. Sam Geiersbach, Mia Castagnero and Katie Sciandra also logged hat tricks in the win.

Castagnero started the scoring for the Spiders in the third minute off an assist from Sciandra, before Sciandra scored less than two minutes later off of Julie Ball's first assist of the season. Geiersbach and Brown both tallied unassisted goals over the next two minutes to give the Spiders an early 4-0 lead.

George Mason was able to get on the board in the eighth minute, but a five-goal run by the Spiders put them up 9-1 for the second time in two days. Castagnero started the run with a goal assisted by Brown, before Geiersbach scored her second goal of the day off an assist from Madison Ostrick. Sciandra's second goal made it 7-1 before Julia Schmuckler and Ostrick each scored, assisted by Brown and Geiersbach, respectively.

The Patriots managed to score two goals in the final 12 minutes of the half, but the Spiders scored three to take a 12-3 advantage into the break. Brown and Sciandra scored before Geiersbach closed out the first-half scoring off of Brown's second assist of the game.

The second half started just as the first did, as the Spiders scored the first seven goals, holding George Mason off the board for over 30 minutes total from the end of the first half through almost the entirety of the second. Brown assisted Geiersbach to start the half before scoring her own unassisted goal. Castagnero then completed her hat trick and Aly Fries scored off yet another Brown assist.

Brown continued to dominate, scoring off a helper from Castagnero to make it 16-3. Jillian Becker got on the board with 18:44 left in the game off an assist from Lauren Kingsbury, before Kingsbury scored twice in a row, assisted by Castagnero and Schmuckler. George Mason scored their lone goal of the half from free position with just under four minutes to play to make the final score 19-4.

The Spider defense was a brick wall, holding the Patriots to their lowest goal output of the season. Goalie Megan Gianforte finished with 10 saves, surpassing the 500 save mark for her career, while Danni LeServe added a pair of saves in the closing minutes. Sciandra, Ostrick and Brittney Wright all caused a pair of turnovers to lead the Spiders, while 12 different Richmond players collected at least one ground ball.

The Spiders will now look to repeat as Atlantic 10 Champions in Sunday's matchup, which is set to begin at 12 p.m. at George Mason Stadium.