Lacrosse advances to postseason despite loss

Despite the 16-15 loss to conference foe Richmond, Owls win tiebreaker.

Despite rallying back from a deficit late in the second period, the Temple Owls fell short to their Atlantic 10 Conference opponent Richmond Spiders 16-15, at Geasey Field on Sunday afternoon.

“Honestly, today was a day that we did a lot of really good things, but at the same time, a lot of people had their one mistake,” Rosen said. “We just had one too many mistakes on a very good team, resulting in us not getting off enough shots to finish the game.”

Despite dropping its last regular season game and losing their first home game of the year, Temple (9-7,4-3) created a three-way tie in the A-10, including Richmond (7-10,4-3) and George Washington, but due to tiebreakers, the Owls and Colonials advanced.

“This game isn’t an indication, it’s a motivation,” Swavola said.

On senior day, senior midfielders Stephany Parcell, Charlotte Swavola, and Kellee Pace combined for more than half of Temple’s scoring output, scoring nine total goals. Parcell led the team with four goals, Swavola recorded a hat trick, and Pace netted a pair.

Parcell and Swavola also recorded an assist and combined for nine total draw controls. Swavola collected a team-high six draws.

Freshmen Kirstie Connor and Rachel Schwaab each netted a couple of goals. Junior attack Jaymie Tabor and freshman midfielder Kathryn Skahan each added one score.

In a little over 54 minutes played, senior goalie Meghan Clothier allowed sixteen goals and recorded five saves, in a loss.

For Richmond, freshman attack Sam Stevenson tied for a game-high of seven total points, with six goals and an assist. Redshirt senior midfielder Caitlin Fifield also recorded seven points, recording five goals and two assists.

The Spiders’ goalkeeper Michaela Aymong received the win and recorded four saves in the process.

The game was established as a high scoring game of runs in the first period. Richmond began the game with three straight goals, followed by a Temple 3-0 run, making the score 3-3 in the first ten minutes of play.

After the Pace goal capped off a 3-0 run, the Spiders responded by scoring five consecutive goals. Temple finished the first period outscoring Richmond 6-3, but still trailed at halftime 11-9.

The second period led to less offense, as both teams saw a significant drop off in shot attempts. In the first period, both teams combined for 33 total shots attempts, while 14 shots were attempted in the second period.

Each team traded goals for most of the second period, but Richmond outscored the Owls 5-4 within the first 25 minutes of the period.

With 4:19 on the game clock, Richmond led 16-13 before Skahan and Parcell scored back to back goals, closing the gap to one goal. Down by a score, the Owls were set to attempt a crucial draw, but were unable to capture possession in the final minutes.

“Draw control was a key,” Parcell said. “For a stretch of about ten minutes, we were just not coming up with the ball. They were possessing the ball more than we were”.

Richmond won the draw control battle by a large margin, collecting a total of 21 draws, while the Owls recorded 12.

The Spiders kept the ball away from Temple defenders for the final three minutes, securing the win.

“We’ll go back and work on it and try to get ourselves refocused for another great rematch against Duquesne,” Rosen said.

Brien Edwards can be reached at brien.edwards@temple.edu or on twitter @BErick1123.

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