University of Richmond
13-6
No. 8 Penn
14-4
Spiders Fall Short To No. 8 Penn in First Round of NCAA Tournament
05/10/2024 | Women's Lacrosse
Philadelphia – The University of Richmond women's lacrosse team 16-5 to eighth-seeded Penn in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on a cold and rainy Friday afternoon at Franklin Field.
"I have to say I'm extremely proud of this team and what we were able to do and accomplish this year," said Spiders Head Coach Anne Harrington. "There were a lot of doubts with this group with how much we lost from last year, but everyone who mattered most, which is the people in that locker room, believed in what we could do and we accomplished a lot that we're proud of this season."
Penn controlled the draw throughout, winning 17-of-8 and limited Richmond's scoring efforts that were further stalemated by 12 Spider fouls to Penn's 3. The Quakers outshot the Spiders 39-24 and connected on 4-of-5 free position attempts.
Penn scored its first goal of the day off a successful free position attempt at 7:17 in the first. The Spiders came out of the media timeout and Maggie Jordan won the ensuing draw to give Richmond possession and set up for a Charlotte Edwards goal off a feed in front by Grace Muldoon.
Richmond had its fair share of looks in the opening quarter, outshooting the Quakers 9-7. By the end of the first 15 minutes though, Penn goalie Kelly Van Hoesen had tallied five of her 11 saves for the day.
From there, Penn scored goals at the 5:56 and 4:28 timestamps to take a 3-1 upper hand into the second quarter.
Another free position attempt fell for the Quakers at 13:15 in the second, then Penn scored once again just over a minute later at 12:02.
Abby Francioli made a save at 8:19, but the ball was deflected back towards a Penn attack who was able to shoot a low shot past the freshman goalie.
Francioli entered the NCAA tournament as just one of two freshman starting goalies and ranked first in save percentage (.458), saves (119) and saves per game (6.61) among first-year keepers in the tournament. She ended the day with 12 saves.
Colleen Quinn scored Richmond's second goal of the game at 4:10 in the second, taking a low shot on the crease to sneak the ball past Van Hoesen. Less than a minute later at 3:17, Marymargaret Quinn fed Edwards a ball from the X and Edwards took it to cage to cut the Richmond deficit to three, but Penn responded on its next possession at 2:25 to take back its four-goal advantage into halftime.
The Quakers scored just 45 seconds into the second half, then Richmond responded at 12:47 when Grace Muldoon caught a pass from Leah Kenny and went to the top of the cage.
The Quakers scored another free position goal at 11:48, then tallied goals at 11:32, 10:36, 9:27 to cap off a four unanswered goal run that was eventually broken up by a Colleen Quinn free position goal at 6:50. Penn answered back at 2:43 to go up 13-5 with 15 minutes left to play, then netted goals at 9:43, 4:55 and 3:31 in the final frame to run away with the First Round win.
The Spiders finish their season at 13-6.
