AMHERST, Mass. - The UMass women's lacrosse team weathered a pair of storms on Friday afternoon taking a 13-12 win over Richmond in McGuirk Stadium. The game was delayed due to lightning with just under eight minutes remaining in regulation. UMass held a four goal lead at that point, but the Spiders scored three straight to close out the game narrowly missing the equalizer as the final seconds expired.

The Minutewomen (6-6, 3-0 A-10) remain undefeated in the Atlantic 10 and handed Richmond its first loss this year in league action. UMass will face George Washington on Sunday afternoon (1:00 pm) at McGuirk Stadium in a meeting between the only undefeated A-10 squads remaining. The 3-0 start in A-10 play is the best for UMass since first joining the conference in 1999 when the Minutewomen started out 4-0.

Sophomore Jackie Lyons notched a team-high seven points with three goals and a career-high four assists. Senior Meghan Reddy scored a career-high five goals and added seven draw controls which gives her the UMass single-season record with 47 for the season. Freshman Katie Florence earned her third-straight win in goal with eight saves.

Richmond's Mary Flowers scored a pair of goals and added four assists to lead the Spiders (2-10, 2-1 A-10). All-American Mandy Friend was held to just one goal which came with just 1:29 remaining in the game. Allison Furstenburg nearly tied the game with one second remaining on the clock, but her shot sailed wide left as time expired in what would have been a reversal of last season's Atlantic 10 Semifinal Game.

The two teams traded scoring runs in the first seven minutes of play with Richmond's Danielle Schaevitz tying the game 3-3 with her sixth goal of the season.

UMass took control of the first half with a five goal run heading into intermission thanks to three from Reddy and a free position goal from Haley Smith (3 goals) with 26 seconds left to go up 11-5.

Reddy netted her fifth goal of the game 68 seconds into the second half before Flowers and Sam Tajirian teamed up for three-straight goals to cut the deficit back to 12-8 with 21:21 left in the game.

Lyons scored a free position goal to end the Richmond run with 17:45 remaining and the two teams were scoreless for the next 10 minutes before the lightning delay.

After the teams left the field for nearly 40 minutes as the threat passed the area, play resumed and Richmond mounted its four-goal run. The Spiders converted a pair of UMass turnovers into goals and with 1:29 remaining, Flowers sent a draw control deep into the Richmond offensive zone where Friend was able to control the ball in stride, drove towards the crease, and fired a shot into the upper corner to pull within one, 13-12.

UMass senior Jackie Rosenzweig won the ensuing draw control, but with 16 seconds left, Richmond forced another turnover along the sideline deep in the UMass offensive zone. The Spiders called timeout and worked the ball up the field clearing the ball into the offensive zone with six seconds remaining. Furstenburg drove towards the right side of the crease getting a shot off with two seconds remaining on the clock. Her shot sailed wide to the left and time expired as the ball was going out of bounds.

2009-04-03