It was a busy weekend for women’s soccer at Richmond this weekend, with a game Friday night against University of Massachusetts and Sunday afternoon against University of Rhode Island.
The Spiders defeated the UMass Minutewomen 2-0 Friday, which was also the team’s senior night, and lost to the URI Rams 3-1 Sunday.
Richmond achieved its fourth shutout of the season as the Spiders dominated the UMass at E. Clairborne Robins Stadium. Richmond scored in the 16th minute of the first half after Meaghan Carrigan blasted a shot, which the UMass goalkeeper deflected toward junior Ashley Riefner. She shot it straight at the near post for the goal.
The 1-0 score held for the rest of the first half, with both teams playing strong defensively. Five minutes into the second half, Richmond scored again after senior Ashley Williams took a shot that was deflected off a defender, but found Carrigan, who scored from 15 yards out. Richmond had 26 shots to UMass’ eight for the game. The win qualified the Spiders for the A-10 Championships next weekend.
The Spiders honored five seniors Friday night -- Lisa Hozey, Drika Bianchin, Violet Miller, Samantha Cicconi and Ashley Williams -- for their long-term dedication and contributions to the women’s soccer program.
The URI Rams beat the Richmond Spiders in the Spiders’ final, regular-season game Sunday. The Rams got the only first-half goal with about nine minutes left, and scored twice in the second half before the Spiders broke through their defense.
With about seven minutes remaining in the game, sophomore Kate Smith kicked the ball to junior Shannon Colligan, who headed it into the goal from seven yards away for the final scoring play of the game.
After this weekend, the Spider’s record was 9-8-2 and a 3-3-2 in the A-10 conference. Richmond has earned the seventh seed in the A-10 Championships and will face cross-town rival VCU in the third quarterfinal in Dayton, Ohio, this Thursday.
Contact reporter Carney Judge at carney.judge@richmond.edu