Virginia's Erin Englehardt stomped her foot and let out a yell of irritation after narrowly missing a shot. Her visible frustration exemplified the attitude of her women's soccer team in last night's 4-1 loss to Richmond.
The Spiders' offensive success came early. In the 21st minute, they converted their first shot of the game into a goal. Richmond forward Brooke Sands beat Cav defender Ashley Meeker down the left sideline and placed her shot past goalkeeper Julie Harris and into the right corner of the goal.
Richmond (10-5) only had a total of two shots in the first half to Virginia's 11, but the Cavs (8-7) could not break through the Spiders' defense to put the ball in the net.
"We were not as decisive as we needed to be in our attacking third," Virginia coach Steve Swanson said. "Their defense was pretty solid. We got the ball in good areas. We just didn't finalize things."
Richmond came out even stronger after halftime. Less than two minutes into the second half, Spiders' midfielder Jenna Merriam rebounded a ball off of Cav defender Meredith Rhodes and finished her shot past goalkeeper Jodi Clugston, who replaced Harris in the second half.
Just over two minutes later the Spiders capitalized on yet another scoring opportunity to take a 3-0 lead. In a scramble in the box, Richmond freshman Bethany Shewmaker found the ball and aimed a shot that went just over the diving Clugston and past Meeker, who was standing on the goal line.
Despite the Cavaliers' attacking attempts, the Spiders held onto their decisive lead for the remainder of the game and sealed the win with a fourth goal in the 84th minute.
Richmond's last goal summed up the lackluster attitude the Cav defense showed for most of the game. From about 35 yards out, with four Virginia defenders between her and the goal, Merriam nailed a shot that sailed over Clugston. Virginia players stood and watched.
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While the Cavaliers couldn't keep the Spiders from scoring, the Richmond defense excelled. The Cavs dominated possession for much of the game and finished with 16 shots to Richmond's 10, but were unable to break through in the Spiders' backfield. Richmond smothered almost all of Virginia's scoring chances by stepping up and clearing out the Cav attack.
"I think we had control most of the game in terms of ball possession, but at the end it doesn't matter," Swanson said. "It's how many chances you put away. It was Richmond's night."
The Spiders scored all four of their goals before Virginia got on the board. In the 87th minute, following a foul on Lindsey Grubbs in the box, midfielder Lori Lindsey easily placed her penalty kick past Richmond goalkeeper Kristen Samuhel.
But that one goal, coming with just four minutes left in the game, did little to boost Cavalier spirits. From the outset, Virginia's target had been to win all four of its in-state games this season. After defeating William & Mary, George Mason and James Madison, Richmond was the only team standing in the way.
"This game was big for us," Cav midfielder Katie Tracy said. "It was a goal we thought we could accomplish - to win all the games in-state. We're certainly disappointed"
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