The Richmond women's lacrosse team faced the No. 1 team in the nation on Sunday afternoon and, for the first 15 and last 8 minutes of the game, its opponents played like it. The final score showed Maryland winning 18-7.
In the first lacrosse game ever played in the newly-built Robins Stadium, the Spiders fell behind early to the Terrapins, thanks to a run that put Maryland ahead 9-0 with just more than 15 minutes gone in the first half.
Leading the charge for Maryland was junior attacker Karri Ellen Johnson, who ended the game with 7 goals and 1 assist. Four of her goals came in that initial 15 minutes. Also key in the Terrapins' victory were sophomore midfielder Katie Schwarzmann (5 goals) and senior attacker Sarah Mollison (2 goals, 6 assists).
The Spiders' first goal of the season came from junior midfielder Mary Flowers off an assist from sophomore Kara Moschetti. Reigning Atlantic 10 Conference midfielder of the year, Flowers finished the game as her team's leading scorer with 3 goals and 1 assist.
"I expected a lot," Flowers said. "I thought we could hang with [Maryland] and even beat them, but we've got a lot to work on. We'll [keep] playing our hardest and see what happens."
Richmond ended the first half on a high note with a last second goal by junior Caitlin Fifield to make the score 11-4 Maryland. The Spiders continued to build on that, coming out strong in the second half. With about eight minutes left in the game, senior Danielle Schaevitz took a pass from Flowers and slid it under the goalie's stick to bring the Spiders within five goals, at 12-7. The goal was Schaevitz's second of the game.
"We definitely learned a lot from this game," Richmond coach Stephy Samaras Mantziaras said. "I think the first 20 minutes of the second half was probably our biggest triumph in this game. Our defense was able to collect themselves and make the changes that we needed to make and offensively, we clearly learned that we've going to have to move the ball a lot more."
Maryland reinforced its top national ranking after Schaevitz's goal, finishing the game with six straight unanswered goals, including three in a row by Schwarzmann.
"We got to work hard 100 percent of the time," Flowers said. "We can't let down for even a minute, which we did, and we can't afford that against the number one team in the nation."
Richmond's schedule doesn't much easier from here, as they are set to travel next to face the No. 2 Duke Blue Devils on Friday.
Game Notes:
Richmond's freshman defender Taylor Blazer led all players with three groundballs won. ... Richmond's freshman midfielder Hayley Ross got her first career point with an assist at the end of the first half. ... Maryland's Johnson has now scored in 46 straight games.
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Contact reporter David Weissman at david.weissman@richmond.edu
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