April 20, 2008

Box Score

RICHMOND, Va. - An 11-3 over the middle 30-plus minutes of the match proved to be Saint Joseph's undoing in a 13-9 loss at Richmond on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Christina Colangelo (four goals) and Suzy Herlihy (14 saves) were the stars of the game in SJU's season finale.

The Hawks jumped out to a solid 4-2 lead after falling behind 2-1 just five minutes into the game. Linsdey-Kate McCool put SJU up 1-0 just 101 seconds into the game before Richmond put two goals in the net in less than a minute's time.

Colangelo tallied back-to-back goals at 16:48 and 13:42 left in the first period to give SJU its second lead of the game at 3-2. Abby Renninger provided the third goal in arrow for the Hawks with 10:27 remaining in the half.

After a UR timeout, the Spiders regrouped. It would be mostly Spiders the rest of the half as UR scored three goals in 35 seconds to turn a two-goal deficit into their second lead of the game at 5-4 with 9:07 remaining.

Colangelo would tie the game for the Hawks at 5:02, but two late tallies 12 seconds apart by Richmond's standout attacker Mandy Friend (six goals, three assists) gave Richmond a 7-5 lead going into the break.

A weather delay briefly halted the game in the first half.

Friend wasn't done because after half time she scored two more to close out her personal four-goal run and give UR a 9-5 lead with 22 minutes to go.

Saint Joseph's would score twice in less than a minute with 16:33 to go behind the strength of Colangelo and sophomore standout Jenna Martino to cut the lead in half at 9-7.

Richmond would confidently put the game away with four straight goals from 15:48 to 5:43 for an insurmountable 13-7 margin. With about 11 minutes to go a severe weather delay again halted the game for a second time, almost prompting a cancellation, but play went on when the weather let up.

Renninger would put two more in the net at 5:12 and 4:15 to cap the scoring for the game and Richmond iced it away to claim another Atlantic 10 Regular Season title.

The Spiders held the edge in shots (33-23), ground balls (25-21), while the teams were even in draw controls each picking up 12 apiece.

The Hawks finished their season at 7-9 overall and 2-5 in Atlantic 10 play, identical to its 2007 campaign.