University of Richmond Athletics
From The AD's Desk
08/22/2024 | General, Spider Athletic Fund
Greetings Spiders!
Welcome to the start of a new school year! Spider Athletics has spent the summer readying itself for the 2024-25 season and we can't wait to get started. Here's what we're looking forward to in the coming days and weeks, as well as details on how our student-athletes, staff, and coaches have worked to make the upcoming school year a great success for your Richmond Spiders.
Football's Poll Position
Spider football is primed to defend its 2023 CAA title and push for a third straight NCAA Playoffs appearance, with Richmond ranked as high as 12th in national preseason polls. UR's path to the postseason begins a week from Saturday in Charlottesville when the Spiders visit UVA. The team's six-game home schedule starts on September 7 against Wofford, kicking off the 15th season of football at Robins Stadium! The slate also includes a Red Out against long-time rival Delaware on October 19, a Homecoming matchup vs Towson with bigger and better pregame festivities on November 2, and the traditional regular season finale vs William & Mary, with The Capital Cup presented by C&F Bank on the line, on November 23. I hope you'll join me and the rest of the Spider faithful in cheering on your team as the Spiders seek to go out on top in their final CAA season!
Spiders Set for Fall
The on-campus competition schedule for the 2024-25 school year officially begins this afternoon, when Spider soccer hosts Longwood at President's Field at River Road. It's coach Adam Denton's second season leading the Spiders, and he and his staff have revamped the roster as they plan a return to the top of the Atlantic 10. Thursday's matchup is the first of a four-game homestand for Richmond, which will welcome Howard on Sunday, Wake Forest on August 29, and Delaware on September 1.
Martu Loncarica, the reigning Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year, will officially debut as the head coach of Spider field hockey on August 30 when the team opens its 2024 season with a home game vs Old Dominion. The team will test itself with six games against opponents who finished in the top 20 of last year's final national rankings and play 10 games on the friendly turf of Crenshaw Field.Â
The men and women of Spider cross country are currently prepping for their season with a week of training in the mountains of West Virginia. They'll get the chance to test their legs on August 31 at the Spider Alumni Open at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville. The meet will give the Spiders a chance to race on the same course that will host the Atlantic 10 Championships in November, when Richmond will run for a conference championship.Â
Pitt Field Refresh
The relative calm of the summer months gives Richmond Athletics the best opportunity to improve upon a suite of athletic facilities that has been rated among the 10 best in the nation by The Princeton Review. In addition to painting and polishing at many of our facilities, a completely new playing surface is being installed at Pitt Field. The new state-of-the-art FieldTurf will give the Spiders a better-performing and better-looking field, and additional changes to the fencing along both foul lines will further enhance player safety and the aesthetics of the longtime home of Spider baseball.Â
Amazing Student-Athlete Experiences
Our student-athletes earned a summer break after winning five conference championships and combining to post an average team GPA of 3.40 during the 2023-24 school year, matching the highest on record for a year without COVID-19 grading policies. But in typical Richmond fashion, many Spiders spent the summer working to get ahead athletically and academically.Â
Dozens of Spider football and basketball players had campus mostly to themselves in June and July, as offseason training programs and summer classes laid the foundation for the coming year. 20 student-athletes participated in study abroad programs, acquiring international perspectives and experiences in places like Denmark, Costa Rica, Ireland, and many locations in between. That doesn't include the entire women's basketball roster, which recently returned from a nine-day trip to Spain. The team visited the Prado in Madrid, toured the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, and played a pair of exhibition games vs Spanish teams while learning more about each other and themselves.Â
International travel doesn't always easily fit into the demanding year-round schedule of a Division I student-athlete, but interacting with the greater world around you and learning your part in our global community is an integral part of the transition to adulthood. I'm so grateful our coaches and staff continue to prioritize these immersive experiences for our Spiders, and I'm thankful for our loyal Spider family, who recognizes the value in these once-in-a-lifetime opportunities and whose generosity allows us to offer them to our programs. These educational adventures are another reason I believe there is no better place to be a Division I student-athlete than here at Richmond.Â
Here's to another great year, and… Go Spiders!
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