A-10 Tournament: Spiders Spin Wins with Speed
by Justin Feil | Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online
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Mary Flowers had three goals in Richmond's win March 26 over Temple. The teams reunite Friday in the Atlantic 10 semifinals. © Frank Straus |
The Richmond women's lacrosse team can thank La Salle for helping it return to the No. 1 seed for the Atlantic 10 tournament for the fourth time in the last five seasons.
Had the Explorers not knocked off Massachussets, the Minutewomen
would have been the top seed by virtue of their head-to-head win
over Richmond. The Spiders lost their top two scorers from a year
ago, but finished 6-1 in the A-10 under first-year head coach
Stephy Samaras.
“What we did was we changed the entire tempo of the
team,” said Samaras, a former head coach at Quinnipiac.
“We’ve become a very high-paced team. Our fitness level
went through the roof. We spread the ball around with seven or
eight contributors offensively. Any of them can step up at any
point in the game. We started becoming more of a ball movement type
of team and moving without the ball.”
It has paid dividends, as the Spiders lead the conference in goals
per game and are second in assists per game, yet do so with only
two of the conference’s top 10 goal scorers and without
anyone among the top 10 in assists.
“The biggest thing I’ve seen from the team is their
reinvestment in the program, and their no-lose attitude,”
Samaras said. “It’s been amazing to see them come from
where they were playing Maryland to where they are now and what
they want from themselves.”
Richmond faces a rematch of its conference opener with fourth-seeded Temple in the A-10's first semifinal Friday. Gabi Wiegand, Mary Flowers and Sam Stevenson each had three goals apiece in a 15-14 Spiders win on March 26.
“I think we have to play our game,” Samaras said. “I can only assume Temple will try to slow the ball down like they did in the first game. It’s about doing the simple things.”
Temple helped to make last year’s 4-12 season in which it
won just two conference games a distant memory with wins in three
of its final four games to gain the final tournament spot. The Owls
(7-7 overall, 4-3 in A-10) have actually been best on the road,
where they won four of six games, and one of the losses was the
one-goal defeat at Richmond. The leading seven scorers are within
12 goals of each other.
While Richmond and Temple are seeing each other for the first time
in a month, the second game pits third-seeded UMass against No. 2
La Salle for the second time in one week. The Explorers rallied for
a 10-9 win, the final two goals coming in the last 26 seconds, last
week.
“It was a heartbreaker losing to them,” said UMass
head coach Alexis Venechanos. “There are a few things
we’d like to go back and do again. We know La Salle is going
to be gunning for us. We expect a close game again.”
The Minutewomen lost two of their final four games, not quite the
way the defending champions entered last year’s A-10
tournament with wins in six out of their final seven. They are,
however, the lone team to beat top-seeded Richmond this season.
“We played pretty sloppy the last two games,”
Venechanos said. “Even though we came out with a
‘W’ on Friday, we were sloppy with throwing and
catching, and unforced errors, there’s no excuse for them. We
have to clean up a bit. Our girls, having played in the tournament
last year, know what to expect.”
UMass graduated just three seniors, but they were a big part of
the title team. A huge sophomore class has helped to fill the
gaps.
“They played last year, but in different roles,”
Venechanos said. “We have players who have been there and
we’ll rely on them to step up. Jackie Lyons made a name for
herself in the tournament last year. We’re expecting that
again from her, and we’re expecting others to step up.”
Sunday’s final will be televised live on CBS College Sports.
