April 27, 2012

Box Score

RICHMOND, Va. - Third-seeded Richmond (9-7) got out to an early lead and never looked back, moving into the championship finals with a 17-11 victory over second-seeded Duquesne (12-5) in the first semifinal of the 2012 Atlantic 10 Women's Lacrosse Championship at V. Earl Dickinson Field. The Spiders outscored the Dukes 11-3 in the first half and held off their second half charge to earn a spot in the finals for the third year in a row and the seventh time in school history.

Richmond's Sam Stevenson led all players on Friday afternoon with seven points on six goals and one assist, while Duquesne's Amanda Kidder paced the Dukes with five points tallying five goals in the game.

"In the most positive way, this game was about redemption." stated Richmond head coach Stephy Samaras Mantziaras, who's Spiders lost to Duquesne less than a week ago. "Our performance the last time we played them wasn't very Richmond-esque to say the least and we executed in this game in ways we didn't execute against them last week."

Duquesne stormed back in the second half, outscoring the Spiders 8-6, but it wasn't enough to overcome the first half defecit.

The Spiders went into halftime with an 11-3 lead courtesy of four goals from Stevenson. Richmond launched a balanced attack, however, as six different players netted goals in the victory, netting seven unanswered goals between the 16:00 and 7:00 minute marks in the first half.

Richmond Goalie Victoria Roebuck proved the difference maker, recording an impressive 16 saves on the day, nine of which came in the first half.  While the Dukes continued to attack, Roebuck denied them the back of the net.

With the win, Richmond advances to Sunday's final and will await the winner of the Massachusetts/George Washington winner in Friday's second semifinal. Sunday's championship will air live on the CBS Sports Network at 1:00 p.m.

--www.atlantic10.com--