Men’s lacrosse narrowly loses to Saint Joseph's, moving to 9-5

The University of Richmond men’s lacrosse team lost 10-9 against Saint Joseph's on April 27 at Robins Stadium. 

Unfortunately, the Spiders could not pull out the win for their last game of the regular season. 

The first quarter of the game was extremely sloppy, with both teams racking up countless turnovers. The Spiders especially struggled with the clearing game, giving the Hawks countless opportunities to score. However, at the end of the first quarter, the score was tied at 1-1, with UR’s only goal coming from graduate attacker and Tewaaraton Nominee Dalton Young. 

The second quarter showed some more electricity as senior attacker  Lance Madonna scored his 20th goal of the season,  giving the Spiders the edge, 2-1. From there on, both teams continued to have multiple turnovers until, with two minutes left, a St. Joe’s player scored on a man-up opportunity. 

All seemed to be over going into halftime until, in the last second of the half, Madonna scored an electrifying top-corner shot to tie the game, giving the Spiders a much needed boost of morale.

Straight out of the gates in the third quarter, junior faceoff Jared Chenoy quickly won the faceoff and transitioned the ball to senior attacker Luke Grayum, who shot and scored. The Spiders’ bench went wild. 

Following that, the Spiders scored two more goals before the start of their downfall. With 6:15 left in the third, St. Joe’s found the back of the net, making it 6-4 in favor of the Spiders. With one second left in the third, the Hawks scored again. 

Starting the fourth quarter, the Hawks scored four more goals making a total of six unanswered goals and a score of 9-6 in favor of the Hawks. The Spiders managed to score three more goals and the Hawks one and narrowly had the chance to score with seven seconds at the end of the game, but they came up short.

Overall, the Spiders had an abysmal day on faceoffs, going 9-21. Redshirt junior goalie Zach Vigue recorded 9saves. Young and SMadonna were the Spiders’ point leaders for the game, both recording 2 goals and 1 assist each. 

“Physically, we just have to be really, really smart and take care of ourselves, and mentally, we have to be able to learn from this quickly, be honest with ourselves and be ready to flip the switch,” UR Head Coach Dan Chemotti said when asked what the team needs to do to be mentally and physically prepared to face their next opponent, Highpoint University, on at 6 p.m. on May 2  at the University of Massachusetts. 

Contact sports writer Sam Slater at sam.slater@richmond.edu.