The William & Mary field hockey team opened its home slate on a hot and humid Sunday afternoon, taking an early lead over the visiting Richmond Spiders before ultimately falling by a 7-1 score. The Tribe moved to 0-2 early in the season, while the Spiders evened their record at 1-1.
How it Happened
- Richmond started the game with a hard press, and started earning corners within the first minute. The Tribe defense, anchored by freshman
Emma Cari making her first start in goal, stood strong against the onslaught however, keeping a clean shot for the first period. That included defensive saves from
Emme Schwartz and
Mackinzie Brown, as well as two saves from Cari.
- All-American
Pyper Friedman opened the scoring for the Tribe in the 17th minute with a beautiful reverse shot from near the circle boundary. Friedman received a pass on the near side of the Tribe attack, then dribbled along the top of the circle and flicked the shot back across once she had a step and beat the keeper to the original near post. That was her 12th career tally, and the first of the young season for the Tribe.
- Richmond responded with three goals before the half, all coming out of scrambles in front of goal, while Cari added two more saves to her total of seven on the day.
- Coming back out in the third quarter, both teams played much more back and forth over the field, and neither was able to add to the scoreboard. W&M's best chance came early, with
Erin Griffin testing the Richmond goalkeeper, and
Josie Mae Gruendel pushing the rebound just wide of the goal mouth.
- W&M continued to press to try and narrow the gap as the fourth quarter started, but the Spiders' striker Clara Larripa began finding range in the 53rd minute, and turned in four more goals from the field and on set plays to push the lead out to its final margin.
- For the game, Richmond outshot W&M 26-9 and 17-3 on-goal, while holding a 13-3 advantage on penalty corners. The Tribe picked up 10 saves, including seven for Cari, the two defensive saves, and a stop late by Alexandra De Jesus who covered the final five minutes in goal.
Next Up
William & Mary returns to action on Friday afternoon, Sept. 6, hosting No. 8 Harvard at 3 PM, before wrapping up the three-game homestand with No. 18 Old Dominion on Sunday, Sept. 8, at 1 PM. Both matches will be streamed live on FloSports.
