MERION STATION, Pa.—It’s a very familiar line in Atlantic 10 Field Hockey Championship lore.
“Richmond will play Massachusetts for the A-10 title.”
On Saturday, the top-seeded Spiders and the No. 2 Minutewomen will face off with a conference title and an NCAA trip on the line. The game, which will be contested at Ellen Ryan Field on the Saint Joseph’s University campus, begins at 2:00 pm ET. The game will be live streamed for free on the Atlantic 10 Network.
So why is this so familiar? Consider this:
This will be the fourth straight year Richmond and UMass will play for the A-10 Field Hockey title.
But wait, there’s more…
This will be the eight championship final meeting between the two A-10 field hockey powers.
And the grand finale...
No team, other than Massachusetts or Richmond has won the Atlantic 10 Field Hockey Championship since 1996. Yes, you read that right. For 19 years the trophy has displayed either UMass or Richmond, a fact that won’t change this year. And even more impressively, the Minutewomen carried the torch alone for the first five years -- Richmond didn’t join the Atlantic 10 until 2001.
So understand when Saturday’s final faces off, there’s a little bit of history involved. And that’s appropriate, since this year is also the 40th Anniversary of the Atlantic 10.
Massachusetts clinched its spot in the title game with a 5-2 win over host Saint Joseph’s on Friday. The game, which was scoreless in the first half, was a barrage of goals in the second half, first on a pair of SJU goals, then five unanswered tallies by UMass. Melanie Kreusch had a hat trick for the Minutewomen.
Richmond scored a 2-1 win over No. 4 Davidson in the second semifinal Friday. The Spiders avenged a regular season loss to the Wildcats, the only blemish on UR’s conference record. An equalizer goal from A-10 Defensive Player of the Year Amy Cooke, followed by a game-winner by Taylor Deitrick put the Spiders in the finals.
Saturday’s game may provide some offensive sparks. Although the game was low scoring, Richmond tested Davidson’s goalie Emily Leytham a total of 11 times. But while both teams worked hard on the offensive end Friday, they both have strong defenses to lean on as well.
Richmond won the regular season matchup 2-1, but it took double overtime to decide it. As time was winding down in the second overtime period, the Spiders’ Kelly Quinn scored the game winner in the 99th minute on a pass from Avery Safford.
Oh and in case you were wondering who the last team not name Massachusetts or Richmond was that won an A-10 title – that would be the host of Saturday’s final, Saint Joseph’s.