Spiders Smash Marquette For First NCAA Tournament Win

Friday, May 12

Chapel Hill, N.C.

5:00 PM

University of Richmond

17-3, 8-1

#22 Marquette

15-4, 5-1

Marquette

Richmond

Spiders Smash Marquette For First NCAA Tournament Win

05/12/2023 | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score Photo Gallery Anne Harrington Postgame Photo Gallery

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — For year, the Richmond Spiders Women's Lacrosse program has been among the nation's most successful.

Conference championships. All-Americans. Wins vs nationally-ranked opponents.

But despite all of their accomplishments, the Spiders had never won an NCAA Tournament game since the program's inception in 1983. Until Friday.

The Spiders answered an early goal from Marquette with five straight scores of their own and never looked back, running away with an 18-8 win to advance to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament.

"I think this is an amazing day for Richmond Lacrosse," said Head Coach Anne Harrington. "The team, I think, was prepared coming into this. They wanted to make that history and wanted to do that for everybody who's come into this program before and laid the groundwork to get to this point."

After the Golden Eagles opened the scoring with a goal with 12:14 to play in the 1^st quarter, the Spiders closed the period on a 5-0 run, with senior Lindsey Frank scoring three times in that span.

The second quarter belonged to senior Sophia DiCenso. After Marquette scored to pull within 5-2, their first goal in 17:44 of game time, DiCenso scored four times in the final 8:45 of the period to give Richmond a 9-3 lead at the half.

The closest Marquette would get in the second half was late in the third quarter, when three unanswered goals made the score 11-6 in favor of the Spiders.

But sophomore Grace Muldoon answered with a pair of goals in less than a minute and Frank added another score in with 0:29 left to play in the quarter to give the Spiders plenty of breathing room on their way to an 18-8 victory.

"I'm not surprised with how hard they came out. They were ready to go," said Harrington. "I think we were prepared. Marquette gave us a great game and continued to make changes and we had to be ready for that."

Eight Spiders scored at least twice, with Frank and DiCenso each netting a team-high four goals. Senior Arden Tierney and sophomore Colleen Quinn recorded three goals each and junior Ali Susskind and sophomore Grace Muldoon scored twice.

"Our offense is extremely balanced," said Harrington. "It's something Coach Lindsey [Ronbeck] has talked a ton about. A seven-woman offense, where everybody out there is important with what they are doing. ... The chemistry they have as a group is really great and it makes it fun to watch."

Goalie Emilie Bloyer and the Spiders defense held Marquette to just eight goals, less than half of its average entering the game. Marquette's two-time All-Big East selection Mary Schumar, guarded tightly by freshman Jordyn Harrison for much of the game, was held without a point for the first time this season.

Richmond, which entered Friday 0-5 all-time in NCAA Tournament games, will face No. 4 seed and defending national champion North Carolina Sunday at noon in Chapel Hill, N.C in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament.

"We're ready to compete and play and I think coming off of today and last weekend are feeling confident and we're ready to work hard," said Harrington. "We know we have to earn every ground ball, every look on cage, every stop on defense on Sunday."

The game will be streamed on ESPN Plus and tickets are available via the UNC box office.