Women's lacrosse defeats cross-town rival VCU, 21-10

Richmond women’s lacrosse went on a scoring spree 12 minutes into the second half Thursday to secure a 21-10 win over A-10 and cross-town rivals, Virginia Commonwealth University.

“Every A-10 game has so much behind it because there are such strong rivalries with all of the teams and it basically can be anybody’s game when you step onto the field,” head coach Allison Kwolek said.

The Spiders started the game off strong with a save and clear by sophomore goalie, Megan Gianforte.

The first goal of the game was came from junior midfielder Katie Sciandra within the first three minutes of the game. Sciandra went on to celebrate for the remainder of the game because she went 9-9 in shots and goals.

“You have to celebrate victories big and small,” Sciandra said, “the defensive and offensive, and I think that really helps bring the momentum forward going into the next plays and the next games.”

The nine goals Sciandra scored is a new Spider program record for most goals in a game. The game was filled with records, including one made by senior midfielder Caroline Queally.

Queally became the first Spider to win 300 career draw controls through the ten she won last night.

VCU answered quickly with a goal from junior midfielder Sky Hatt to tie the game at one. The next ten minutes had Richmond taking a further lead in front of VCU, going up 9-4 with 10 minutes left.

Following a timeout taken by Richmond, the Rams were able to score on a free-position mark. The Spiders answered quickly with sophomore midfielder Madison Ostrick scoring the first goal of her career with 0:25 left, making it 10-5 going into the half.

“For [Ostrick] to come into the game before the half with I think less than a minute left, I think gave us just a huge momentum and was just a really great play,” Kwolek said.

Sciandra echoed her coach’s statement saying that it was great to be able to have her teammates score so that they could have that achievement and validation on the field.

VCU came out with intention at the beginning of the second half, scoring three unanswered goals within the first eight minutes.

After another timeout, Richmond found their stride. For the rest of the game, the Rams were only able to score two more goals.

After a yellow card penalty on Gianforte forced her to leave the goal with a little under 10 minutes to go in the half, the Spiders were resilient and only allowed a single goal.

When Gianforte returned back to the field, she made her presence known by intercepting a pass and started a successful transition. Sophomore attacker Sophia Madsen capitalized on this opportunity, scoring the first goal of her career.

Sciandra said this win was one of the teams’ goals this season.

“VCU is a cross-town rival so there is always a lot of competitive energy and emotions in the game,” Sciandra said. “I think that we were really determined to make a statement coming into the A-10s and we let the rivalry get the best of us a little bit in the beginning, but we really found ourselves towards the end and played Richmond lacrosse.”

The team is ready to reset quickly for their upcoming game against Duquesne and they plan on focusing on the game in front of them, Kwolek said.

The Richmond women’s lacrosse team will be playing at Duquesne at 12 p.m. on March 31.

Contact sports editor Lindsay Emery at lindsay.emery@richmond.edu