This weekend, the four best Atlantic 10 women’s lacrosse teams will head to Richmond, Va., where they will play for the Atlantic 10 Women’s Lacrosse Championship and a berth in the NCAA tournament.
The presumed favorite in the field is three-time defending champions Massachusetts, which comes in as the No. 1 seed in the tournament.
The Minutewomen (16-1, 7-0 A-10) will begin their quest for a fourth straight championship against the No. 4 seed George Washington in the second semifinal game Friday afternoon at approximately 3:30 p.m.
UMass has made easy work of its Atlantic 10 schedule so far this season, including a dominant 23-10 win against the Colonials (10-6, 4-3 A-10) back on April 1.
In fact, the Minutewomen have won an impressive 18-straight conference games, including a perfect 4-0 record in A-10 tournament play over this stretch. UMass’ last conference loss came way back in 2010 in its final regular season home game against La Salle, 10-9.
So the task will be a daunting one for George Washington or any Atlantic 10 team to take down the mighty Minutewomen, on their way to another conference title.
Richmond vs. Duquesne
The first semifinal game will take place at 1 p.m. Friday afternoon, and it should be an intense atmosphere, as the host team, No. 3 seed Richmond, takes on the No. 2 seeded Duquesne.
These two teams are coming off of a meeting in the final game of the regular season, in which the Dukes (12-5, 5-2 A-10) escaped with a 12-7 victory.
Both teams have the ability to score, and do so in bunches.
Duquesne is averaging 13.88 goals a game, second only to UMass, on 29.82 shots per game, once again second only to the Minutewomen, while maintaining the third best shot percentage in the league (47.4).
In its arsenal, the Dukes have a potent offensive threat in Caitlin Prince, who has scored the most goals in the conference this season (63).
However, Duquesne’s strength lies at the other end of the field, on defense.
The Dukes are averaging eight caused turnovers a game, a 9.45 goals-against average, 10.53 saves and a save percentage of 52 percent.
Duquesne has seen significant contributions from both Liz Walker and goalkeeper Kristen Gregory, anchoring this strong Dukes defense.
The Spiders (9-7, 5-2 A-10) also hold a potent offensive attack, averaging per game 13.81 goals, 29.12 shots and a 47.4 shooting percentage, all of which are good for third in the conference.
The Spiders hold two major scoring threats in Caitlin Fifield and Sam Stevenson. The two have scored 51 and 48 goals respectively this season to lead the way for Richmond offensively.
When it comes to turnovers, both teams couldn’t be more even, with Richmond averaging 14.44 per game, while the Dukes average 14.65, good for second and third, respectively, in the conference.
A red flag for the Spiders however is on the defensive end. They hold an alarming 13.11GAA, and don’t have a single goalkeeper in the top 10 when it comes to individual GAAs in the conference.
The primary goalie so far this season for Richmond has been Victoria Roebuck.
Both Richmond and DU managed to bring UMass to overtime in their regular season matchups, before eventually losing 15-4 and 10-8, respectively.
If George Washington pulls off the upset, the winner of this game will hold the advantage as both beat the Colonials during the regular season.
The championship game is scheduled to take place Sunday at 1 p.m.
Cameron McDonough can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @MDC_McDonough.
