May 6, 2007

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PHILADELPHIA - Top-seeded Richmond (14-5, 6-1 A-10) captured its third straight Atlantic 10 women's lacrosse title on Sunday afternoon, posting a 15-7 win over #2 seed George Washington (11-7, 6-1 A-10). Sophomore Mandy Friend led all scorers with six goals, tying an A-10 Championship record for most goals scored in a game, and was voted the Most Outstanding Player of the 2007 Tournament. Classmate Allison Furstenburg also had a big game, tallying seven points off of three goals and a game-high four assist.

Jackie Swansburg, Claire Cunliff, Ashley Friend and Megan Riedy joined Friend and Furstenburg as Richmond's representatives on the A-10 All-Tournament team. George Washington's Kristin Kirsch, Taylor Donahue and Katelyn Honeyford were also voted to the All-Tournament squad. St. Bonaventure's Katelyn Faas and Eboni Preston and Temple's Allison Frengs rounded out the list of honorees.

Donohue struck first for the Colonials just two and a half minutes into the game after taking a feed from Karsch to make it 1-0. Less than six minutes later, Furstenburg passed off a free position shot to Mandy Friend who found the back of the net to tie the game, 1-1. Friend got a hold of a loose rebound from a missed shot and scored once again just over three minutes later for the Spiders' first lead (2-1) of the game. GW's Lindsay Melvin tied the game at two with an unassisted goal at 14:53 but Richmond rattled off five of the next six goals over the final 10:31 of the half to take a 7-3 lead heading into intermission.

The Spiders continued to dominate in the opening minutes of the second stanza, with Friend and Jenna Hubbard scoring goals at 22:52 and 22:16 to make it 9-3 in favor of the two-time champion Spiders. The Colonials weren't finished yet, however, as a Karsch free position goal less than a minute later began a three-goal run that got GW within three goals (9-6) with 12:29 to play. That would be as close as they could get, however, as the Spiders went on a 6-1 run to end the game with the 15-7 result. Friend and Claire Cunliff scored two goals a piece during that stretch.

A-10 Defensive Player of the Year Swansburg had nine saves in the win, while Caitlin Garman had seven.

In addition to Friend tying the A-10 championship record for goals scored in a game, the Spiders set new records for draw controls by a team in a championship (28) and points earned by a team in a game with 24.

Richmond advances to its third straight NCAA Tournament and will learn of its next opponent during the NCAA selection show Monday at 8:00 p.m.