Women's lacrosse team beats St. Bonaventure University

The University of Richmond women's lacrosse team prevailed over St. Bonaventure University April 14 at Robins Stadium.

Before a vocal crowd of 312 people, the Spiders beat the Bonnies 22-8 on a hot and sunny Sunday afternoon. The team is now 2-3 in the Atlantic 10, and 5-10 overall.

The Spiders led the entire game after picking up 3 goals in the first three minutes of the first half, with two of them scored by sophomore Bailey Zerr. Both teams played aggressive offense, and between them they scored almost a goal per minute for much of the first half. St. Bonaventure managed to pick up 5 goals by halftime, compared to the 15 scored by Richmond.

The action slowed in the second half after a goal scored in the first minute by senior Jennifer Zoltoski. Richmond scored 7 more goals in the half, versus 3 by St. Bonaventure.

St. Bonaventure was held scoreless for the middle 25 minutes of the game, and the ball remained in its territory for most of the game. The Bonnies had only 16 shots in the game, versus 34 by Richmond. Six of those shots were taken by senior Caitlin Fifield, the team's captain. She went on to be the game's top scorer with 4 goals and 5 assists.

The Spiders will head to the Atlantic-10 Conference championships April 26 in Amherst, Mass., but both Fifield and head coach Allison Evans said that the team had been focused instead on winning its final two matches to be in a good position for the tournament. Richmond is currently ranked sixth in the Atlantic 10 Conference, ahead of both St. Bonaventure and La Salle University.

Fifield was added on Feb. 22 to the Tewaaraton Watch List, which identifies the leading candidates for the Tewaaraton Award, a prize given to the top male and female collegiate lacrosse players. Fifield is the team's high scorer this season, with 41 goals and 20 assists so far.

Richmond will next play April 19 at home against unranked St. Joseph's University. It will be the team's last home game of the season, and senior night. The team will then head to Temple University, a conference opponent, to play its final game of the season on April 21.

Contact staff writer Ben Panko at ben.panko@richmond.edu