The University of Richmond men’s lacrosse team won a historical 10-7 victory over No. 17 Saint Joseph’s University on Friday, April 25 to end the regular season.
Beating the Mountain Hawks marks the fourth ranked opponent the Spiders have overcome, the most in a single season in program history. This will also be the first time Richmond has won the conference outright.
“I’m just happy that the guys are experiencing the type of success that they’ve worked really hard [for],” Head Coach Dan Chemotti said in a postgame press conference
Saint Joe’s was the only thing standing in front of Richmond, but the Mountain Hawks were not going to go down without a fight. The 2024 A-10 Championship title was snagged by SJU after the Mountain Hawks defeated the Spiders in the finals. Before the heartbreaking fumble, Richmond had two consecutive losses to SJU, furthering its desire for a long-sought victory.
Facing troubles this season, SJU entered the game after High Point caused an upset over the Mountain Hawks.
Richmond maintained a steady, but slight, advantage the entire contest. Opening with a five minute scoring drought, both teams struggled against each other. The Spiders were desperate for a goal, attempting a goal four times in a row before suffering a shot clock violation.
SJU flung two shots of its own, but both were saved by graduate goalkeeper Zach Vigue. The Spiders finally succeeded in a goal, taking this initial lead. The Mountain Hawks answered with back-to-back goals, taking advantage of two UR turnovers.
The Spiders were just getting started, netting two more goals in the quarter and taking a fragile 3-2 lead. The SJU goalkeeper kept the score gap close, picking up seven saves that negated Richmond outgainingoutsourcing the Mountain Hawks 10-5 in shots-on-goal.
The second quarter had barely even begun before senior attacker Lukas Olsson picked up a goal with only 15 seconds shaved off the clock. SJU only managed to generate a turnover before the Spiders were at it again, expanding the lead 5-2 with another goal.
Saint Joe’s tried to take over, but couldn’t stray away from back-and-forth play for the remainder of the half, the Spiders maintaining a two point lead.
Play evened out in the third quarter, both teams netting two goals. Yet again stuck swapping goals, the Mountain Hawks were unable to gain any ground. Much like the first quarter, the SJU goalkeeper picked up seven saves, while Vigue carded zero. However, Richmond took advantage of faceoff opportunities, winning all five. As the buzzer sounded, the Spiders were still up by two, 9-7.
Olsson opened the final quarter of the game with a goal, earning himself a hat trick. Saint Joe's desperately tried to comeback, but every single shot-on-goal was blocked by Richmond. As the teams struggled to find an inch, neither was able to score a goal for the remainder of the game, solidifying the Spiders as the team to beat in the A-10 Championships.
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“I’m really happy with the way we executed some key moments,” Chemotti said. “In this conference, there are a lot of quality teams and a lot of quality players. So, hopefully this conference continues to get great recognition, both guys on our team and these other teams.”
Richmond has six days to prepare to fight for the title in Philadelphia May 1 to 3. The Spiders will look to regain the title they won in 2023.
Contact sports editor Abigail Finney at abigail.finney@richmond.edu
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