Women's lacrosse wins A-10 regular season championship

"What a great way to end the regular season," head coach Stephy Samaras said. "The team controlled the pace of the game and looked solid on both ends of the field."

The title marked the fourth time during the last five seasons that the Spiders have finished atop the conference standings.

Richmond started the season 0-4 while playing against a difficult schedule that included Atlantic Coast Conference opponents Duke University, the University of Maryland and the University of Virginia. Since then, Richmond has gone 15-4, with its only conference loss coming against the University of Massachusetts, which finished third in the A-10.

Flowers led the Spiders in scoring during the regular season with 57 points, including 48 goals. Freshman Gabi Wiegand added 43 goals while starting all but one game for Richmond.

Senior goalkeeper Erica Marrocco started all 17 regular season games and held a goals against average of 12.82. Though the Spiders have been outscored overall this season, Marrocco made 165 saves, while opposing goalies stopped only 129 of Richmond's shots on goal.

The A-10 tourament will begin on Friday on the campus of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pa. Only the top four teams from the conference qualify for the tournament, so Richmond will be joined by LaSalle University, Massachusetts and Temple University.

The Spiders, winners of three of the past five A-10 tournaments, will play Temple during the first round at 1 p.m. Friday. The winner of that game will advance to the final, which will be played at 3 p.m. on Sunday and televised on CBS College Sports Network.

Contact staff writer Reilly Moore at reilly.moore@richmond.edu