No. 19 Women's Lax Pulls Away from Richmond 18-10

Spiders cut lead to three in second half, but Minutewomen control final 24 minutes of play.


RICHMOND, Va. - Richmond used a second half flurry to cut the Minutewomen's lead to three, but the No. 19 UMass women's lacrosse team pulled away over the final 23:30 of play for an 18-10 win on Friday afternoon at Robins Stadium.

Despite the run, UMass (14-1, 7-0 A-10) never relinquished its wire-to-wire lead with the 18 goals the most ever scored against the Spiders.

Richmond (5-9, 1-6 A-10) did have the honor of becoming the first team this season to score double
figures on the UMass defense which entered the weekend ranked No.4 nationally in scoring defense.
The Minutewomen will close out their road weekend in Virginia on Sunday (Noon) when UMass faces VCU for the first time ever.

A trio of players paced the UMass offense led by five goals from Callie Santos and four from Hannah Burnett. Each added an assist on the day with Santos tied for a team-best six points alongside Holly Turner who posted two goals and four assists.

Hannah Murphy, Erika Eipp and Ashley Faulhaber each scored twice for the Minutewomen.

Richmond was led by Kim Egizi who scored five goals and added an assist. Brooke Wilson and Hope D'Orsi each scored twice including a combined three goals during the Spiders' four-goal run in the second half.

Statistically, the game was tight with Richmond holding a 35-to-33 edge in shots and UMass having a 15-to-14 advantage in draw controls. Both teams committed 12 turnovers.

The Minutewomen opened the game with a 2-0 lead on goals from Santos and Hannah Murphy. After Richmond got on the board at the 23:34 mark, UMass ripped off five straight goals including both from Faulhaber taking a 7-1 lead. The final 10 minutes of the first half saw both teams score three goals giving the Minutewomen a 10-4 lead at halftime.


Burnett extended that to 11-4 with a goal just under 90 seconds into the second half, but four consecutive from the Spiders cut that lead to three. Goals from Egizi, Wilson and two from D'orsi in just under a three minute span pulled Richmond with 11-8 with 24:51 remaining.

UMass scored seven of the next nine goals after that run including an almost 14-minute scoreless stretch for Richmond that saw the Minutewomen pull away for the win.

Sam Walters earned the win in goal for UMass making three saves, while Aileen Kelly made five saves in the second half.