April 29, 2007

Box Score

Richmond, Va. - Ashley Friend's goal at 9:17 of the second half broke an 8-8 tie and put Richmond ahead for good as the Spiders defeated the Dukes 12-9 Sunday afternoon.

Duquesne (7-10, 2-5) ended its season on a four-game losing streak while Richmond (12-5, 6-1) was crowned Atlantic 10 regular season champions for the second straight year.

Sarah Cates led the Red & Blue with a career-high five goals and Kathleen McNish had five points on two goals and a game-best three assists.

Duquesne was first on the board as McNish set up Courtney Tamasitis just 2:07 into the game. Richmond answered four straight goals in less than two minutes for a 4-1 advantage with 24:45 on the clock.

Becky Greene tallied an unassisted goal to trim the UR lead to 4-2. Allison Furstenburg goal at 18:01 gave the Spiders a 5-2 advantage before two Cates goals brought the Dukes within a goal 5-4 at the 12:57 mark.

Richmond came right back on a goal from Clare Cunniff 33 second later to stretch their lead to 6-4. McNish and Cates closed out the scoring in the first half as the teams were tied 6-6 going into halftime.

Friend gave UR a 7-6 lead before Cates tied the game at 7-7 at 13:37. Friend scored her third of the game 42 seconds later and Cates answered her goal on a free position shot at 11:25 to tied the score at 8-8.

Friend would score three more times in the game giving her six on the day as a McNish goal with 48 seconds remaining was last goal Duquesne would score as the Spiders took the game 12-9.

Friend finished the contest with a game-high eight points (6 goals, 2 assists) as the Spiders out shot the Dukes 26-16 and had six more ground balls (16-10). UR had 13 draw controls to 10 for Duquesne.