Oct. 30, 2009

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - Four unanswered Richmond goals, including three in the second half, derailed the Saint Joseph's field hockey team's upset bid on Friday afternoon as the Spiders wrapped up the Atlantic 10 regular season title with a 4-1 win at Buckley Field. However, with La Salle's loss to Massachusetts, the Hawks have secured a berth in the conference tournament next weekend.

Saint Joseph's (6-10, 3-2 Atlantic 10) opened the scoring in the fifth minute, as Hannah Rogers took off down the center of the field on a breakaway. Richmond goalkeeper Jacki Raithel came out to cut down the angle, but Rogers slid to the side and sent home a blast from just inside the arc to give the Hawks an early lead. Rogers' fifth goal of the year was the first ceded by the Spiders in conference play.

Richmond (11-7, 5-0 Atlantic 10) answered midway through the half as A-10 leading scorer Sarah Blythe-Wood picked up a rebound and deposited it in the cage after a pair of point blank saves by Kelly Swanick.

Blythe-Wood put UR on top just under six minutes into the second half as she hit a rocket into the cage off a penalty corner for her 18th goal of the season. Three and a half minutes later, Megan Thompson doubled the lead with her sixth of the year on a breakaway.

With exactly 21:00 remaining, Katelin Peterson closed out the scoring with her 12th of the year, taking a pass across the crease from Blythe-Wood.

Swanick made five saves in the contest for SJU while Raithel stopped three shots for the Spiders, who will have the top seed in the Atlantic 10 Championship beginning next Friday in Amherst, Mass.

The Crimson and Gray will close out the regular season on Sunday afternoon with a 2:00 p.m. ET matchup at Saint Louis. The Hawks will then begin preparations for their ninth consecutive trip to the Atlantic 10 Championship, the longest streak in school history.