RICHMOND, Va. – In a game that needed 75 minutes of regulation and eight rounds of shootout, the top-seeded Saint Joseph’s University field hockey team defeated second-seeded University of Richmond, 2-1, in the 2026 Betterment Atlantic 10 Field Hockey Tournament final Saturday afternoon. This year’s tournament was played at VCU’s Cary Street Field.
#1 Saint Joseph’s 2, #2 Richmond 1 (SO) – Box Score
In a dramatic shootout, Saint Joseph’s—which was shooting second at this point—took an early 2-0 lead as Alison Buffington and Lily DeWan scored. The Hawks missed their next three, however, and Clara Larripa and Maura Seeger converted for the Spiders to make it 2-2 after five rounds.
The teams went into single-round shootout format—SJU going first, Richmond second—and after Buffington and Larripa missed on their tries DeWan put SJU in front. Her effort was matched by UR's Valen Luna Paratore, leaving it at 3-3 through seven rounds. Erika Culp converted in the top half of the eighth round for the Hawks, and then SJU goalie Avianna Wagner stuffed Seeger to clinch SJU's sixth straight title and ninth in the last ten years.
Wagner was named the Most Outstanding Player of the A10 Tournament and was joined on the all-tournament team by fellow Hawks Buffington, Culp, Kiki Bruning and Milou Kluyt. The rest of the all-tournament team consisted of Larripa, Seeger, Mairead Carey and Maia DeChiario from Richmond; VCU’s Emma Clements; and Davidson’s Ise Adams.
The Spiders (12-7, 5-1) entered the game with one of the top-scoring offenses in the country, and they needed less than six minutes to get on the board Saturday. On its first penalty corner of the day, Richmond’s Clara Larripa inserted to Camilia Daud up top. She set the ball for Dechiario, who hammered it inside the right post for an early lead.
The Hawks (11-9, 6-0) used their own penalty corner to draw level early in the second quarter. The ball was set for Kluyt, who fired a shot from the top of the circle that Carey got a glove on. The ball went high up in the air, though, and Culp was there to push it into the netting with her stick to make the score 1-1.
Saint Joseph’s dominated much of the second half, outshooting Richmond 12-0 in the final 30 minutes of regulation. However, Carey was equal to the task, making three saves in both the third and fourth quarters to force the game to OT still tied at 1-1.
In the extra session, Richmond had three penalty corners in succession and four overall, outshooting SJU 3-1 in the period. Now it was Wagner’s time to step up, and she made a pair of saves to send the game to the shootout.