“[I knew] as soon as I caught it… I turned around and seen a convoy of blockers, like a perfect alley for me right to the sideline,” Hayes said in a postgame press conference. “I went down the middle of the field, got to the sideline, and once I got to the sideline, I knew I was scoring.”
“For the majority of the games we played this season… they’ve been competitive, [so] we are making some progress there,” Denton said. “We’re losing a lot of experience… the base of the team is going to be younger [next year], so that’s a challenge in itself… but we have to start new again next year.”
Both the Spiders and the Blue Hens were among the cohort of teams vying for the top of the Coastal Athletic Association down the stretch last season. Combined with a 6-0 mark to open its 2024 campaign – in which UD averaged upwards of 40 points per game – it seemed that a shootout was inevitable.
Chances for UR were fleeting as the half progressed while the Ramblers found their footing, although Loyola Chicago’s back line was kept busy by senior forward Emma Coleman and a badgering Spiders’ offensive front.
From the outset, the contest appeared to have the back-and-forth quality befitting two teams projected to finish neck-and-neck in conference play.
The Dukes got rolling early with plenty of possession in the attacking third of the field, testing graduate goalie McKenna DalFonso with a handful of strikes from distance within the first eight minutes.
An 89th-minute set-piece goal helped to lift American University past the University of Richmond women’s soccer team on Sept. 8.
The University of Richmond women’s soccer team fell 1-0 to the University of Delaware at home Sept. 1 in what was the Blue Hens’ first win and the Spiders’ first loss on the season.
It seemed only fitting that the final day of conference action would see the University of Richmond women’s lacrosse team host the University of Massachusetts in a tangle for first place in the Atlantic 10 conference. Unfortunately for the upset-minded home side, however, it was the Minutewomen who eked out a 13-12 win on April 27.
The University of Richmond men’s club rugby team has qualified for the Collegiate Rugby Championship for the third consecutive season after winning its open regional qualifiers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
