PHlLADELPHIA – The eighth-seeded University of Pennsylvania women's lacrosse team led from the jump and never took its foot off the gas, running away with a 16-5 victory over Richmond Friday afternoon in an NCAA Championship first-round matchup at Franklin Field.
Penn improves to 14-4 and advances to Sunday's second round, when the Quakers will host Loyola (Md.) at 1 p.m. on Franklin Field. The Greyhounds (18-2) advanced in Friday's other first-round game at Franklin Field, beating Duke 16-11. Atlantic 10 champion Richmond's season comes to an end with an overall record of 13-6.
Quaker Notemeal
*Today was the first-ever meeting between Penn and Richmond and just the Quakers' ninth game against teams that currently constitute the Atlantic 10; Penn is 9-0 in those games.
*The 11-goal difference between Penn and Richmond is tied for the Quakers' largest margin of victory this season with Columbia (16-5) and William & Mary (18-7), which came in back-to-back games in early March.
*The 11-goal margin also is Penn's largest in an NCAA Championship win, surpassing a 10-goal win over Wagner in the 2016 first round (17-7). Penn's 16 goals also were a high in NCAA play since that Wagner win and has been matched just one other time in program history in the postseason, a 16-7 win over Colgate in the 2008 first round.
*Penn advances to the second round for the second straight year and the third time in its last four NCAA appearances dating back to 2018. The Quakers are now 16-16 all-time in NCAA play, 9-2 when playing as the home team including a 4-1 mark at Franklin Field.
*Nine different players scored at least one goal, led by a game-high four tallies from senior
Niki Miles.
*Miles has now scored a goal in 38 straight games, recorded a point in 42 straight contests, and has multiple goals and points in 32 of Penn's last 33 games.
*Miles also won a game-high 12 draw controls, the third time this season she has recorded a double-figure total in that stat; prior to this season, a Penn player had 10 or more draws in a game just four times dating to the tracking of the stat.
*Miles now has 109 draws for the season and became the first Penn player to reach triple digits in draws in a season since Zoe Belodeau in 2018.
*Seniors
Maria Themelis and
Lexi Edmonds, junior
Anna Brandt, and freshman
Catherine Berkery all had two goals.
*For Brandt, the two-goal performance extended her multi-goal and multi-point streaks to 15 games.
*Only five of the team's 16 goals were assisted, all of them coming from
Erika Chung. The senior now has 14 dimes in the last three games and 48 on the season.
*Goalkeeper
Kelly Van Hoesen tied a season high with 11 saves between the pipes, one shy of her career best.
*Defensively, this was the 12th game this season in which Penn's defense held its opponent scoreless for at least one 15-minute stretch. In fact, the Spiders had two such stretches on Friday, a 17:32 period from the first to the second quarter and then the game's final 21:50.
*Penn shut out Richmond in the fourth quarter, the sixth shutout quarter the Quakers have put together this season. The Red and Blue's defensive unit also has put up 18 one-goal quarters and 23 two-goal quarters this season
*Senior
Sophie Davis had three of Penn's nine caused turnovers while six other players had one each.
How It Happened
Penn won the opening draw courtesy of Miles and both defenses started out strong to begin the contest.
Kelly Van Hoesen put away four early saves over the first five minutes, Richmond's goalie adding two as well.
With 7:17 remaining in the first quarter, Miles scored the first goal of the contest on a free-position shot. Richmond quickly leveled 35 seconds later at 1-1.
However, bridging the end of the first quarter to nearly the mid-point of the second, Penn scored five unanswered goals to take a 6-1 lead that it wouldn't relinquish.
The Spiders responded with two tallies in less than a minute, cutting the lead to 6-3 before
Catherine Berkery buried her second of the day with 2:25 remaining to give Penn a 7-3 edge heading into the locker room for the halftime break.
Just 45 seconds into the start of the second half, Brandt got herself on the scoresheet with her 54th goal of the year, upping the lead to 8-3 before Richmond scored its fourth of the day with 12:47 left.
Julia Chai and Brandt then went back-to-back in a 16-second span to give Penn a 10-4 lead, causing the Spiders to call a timeout.
As the quarter crossed the 10-minute mark, Themelis became the Quakers' seventh different goal-scorer of the day after she knocked back a pair to make it a 12-4 game with 9:27 left in the third.
Richmond made it a seven-goal game with 6:50 remaining at 12-5, but Miles picked up her fourth score of the day to take a 13-5 lead into the final quarter.
With 9:43 left, it was Edmonds who became Penn's eighth different goal scorer of the afternoon, increasing the run to 8-2 to take a 14-5 lead as time continued to tick down. The Quakers tacked on two more—courtesy of
Bella Kehoe and Edmonds—to end regulation as Penn advanced on to Mother's Day.
Up Next
Penn's second-round NCAA game against Loyola (Md.) will take place Sunday at 1 p.m. on Franklin Field.
For the latest on Penn women's lacrosse, follow @PennWomensLax on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.
#EarnEverything | #FightOnPenn
