On any given night, the Robins Center appears to be only half-full, a fact not lost to the visiting coaches. "I would suggest to the people and the students here that they back this team," Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli said after his team beat the University of Richmond Spiders men's basketball team last Wednesday night.
Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist Paul Woody offered a familiar criticism last Thursday: Not enough people care about the University of Richmond's sports teams. Woody's column included comments from Saint Joseph's University coach Phil Martelli about the low attendance at last Wednesday's men's basketball game.
Richmond students don't care about Richmond sports. It's a statement I hear at least weekly, if not more frequently, and I'm sick of it.
On Monday Feb. 2, Clint Peay, a former Olympian, Major League Soccer standout and four-time national champion, became the sixth University of Richmond men's soccer coach.
University of Richmond women's track and field coach Lori Taylor described junior Megan Ney as the "epitome of what Division I athletics is all about." The potential to get stronger and to mature mentally and physically is something that coaches look for in athletes, Taylor said, and Ney has that. "Megan is someone who has committed herself to do whatever it takes," she said.
The women's lacrosse team is the preseason pick for the 2009 Atlantic 10 Lacrosse Championship. The squad will open its season with a home scrimmage against the English National Team at 3 p.m.
The University of Richmond's football coaching staff has added two new members to its ranks. Stacy Tutt, a former Spiders quarterback who spent two years in the NFL as a fullback for the New York Jets, will join the staff as an assistant coach, and Chris Stewart, who has worked at the University of Tennessee for the past 11 years, will serve as director of strength and conditioning, according to an athletics department statement released Tuesday. Tutt, who garnered 3,047 yards of total offense during his senior season in 2005, joins three other Richmond alumni on the football coaching staff -- head coach Mike London, class of 1983; assistant head coach Jeff Hanson, class of 1972; and assistant coach Scott Burton, class of 1995. London said Tutt's playing experience and close ties to Richmond would be vital to the program, especially because Tutt played with some of the team's current members. "He's talking about it from experience as opposed to somebody talking about it when they learned it from somebody else," London said, "but it's also the off-the-field contributions he'll be able to make.
The Richmond swimming and diving team trumped James Madison University 167-127 Saturday in front of a raucous crowd at the Robins Center Natatorium, led by three seniors competing in their final home meet, and several freshmen swimming in their first. The Spiders, who hope to capture their eighth consecutive Atlantic 10 Conference Championship Feb.
Most storylines have been exhausted by this point in the two-week buildup to the Super Bowl, but on this campus, there's one that never gets old: Tim Hightower. Last year, he was the star player on the University of Richmond football team that made it to the semifinals of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.
The unranked University of Richmond men's tennis team will play Princeton University at the Country Club of Virginia in Richmond at 5 p.m.
After showing they were more than comfortable competing against the elite women's four at the Swimming World Magazine's College Conference Carnival on Jan.
The remainder of the season for the University of Richmond's men's basketball team will be played against schools in the Atlantic 10 Conference. The streak, which started Jan.
The national championship wasn't the only first for the 2008 University of Richmond football team. In addition to the football team winning its first NCAA Football Championship Subdivision National Championship in 2008, two members of the team achieved firsts for the school. Head Coach Mike London was voted the American Football Coaches Association's FCS Coach of the Year, and senior defensive end Lawrence Sidbury Jr.
In a match-up of the two Atlantic 10 Conference players of the week, senior Ahmad Nivins of Saint Joseph's University outplayed University of Richmond sophomore Justin Harper as the Hawks beat the Spiders 68-58 Wednesday night at the Robins Center. Nivins, a 6-foot-9 forward, was called the "best player in the Atlantic 10" by St.
The University of Richmond women's basketball team lost Tuesday afternoon at the Robins Center 62-55 to the Charlotte 49ers, falling to third place in the Atlantic 10 conference. The Spiders (16-5) shot poorly throughout the game, but nevertheless managed to stay in contention, even after Charlotte (14-6) pulled ahead several times.
The University of Richmond women's basketball team used a 28-10 run at the end of the first half to propel it to an 82-68 victory over the University of Massachusetts Saturday afternoon at the Robins Center. Sophomores Brittani Shells and Crystal Goring and junior Danielle Bell led the charge during the final 7:33 of the first half.
When I heard something on "SportsCenter" last Wednesday about 54 points being scored during a basketball game, I assumed the anchor was talking about a final score. But actually, the final score was the University of Kentucky 90, the University of Tennessee 72.
This weekend the University of Richmond women's tennis team will play its first matches of the spring season, following a productive fall semester spent competing in four different tournaments. The team will travel to Winston-Salem, N.C., to play Wake Forest University at 3 p.m.
The University of Richmond men's basketball team finally found a way to win a close game, beating the University of Rhode Island 78-75 at the Robins Center. Freshman Francis-Cedric Martel hit a game-winning jumper with 15 seconds left on the clock.
The University of Richmond men's and women's indoor track and field teams, each with a full team of athletes returning to competition after an exhausting fall season, will travel to Hampton University to compete in the Hampton Invitational, to be held on Jan.
