Oct. 11, 2002

Box Score

Amherst, Mass. - The Minutewomen opened their Atlantic 10 season with a loss at Richard F. Garber Field on Friday night, falling to Richmond, 4-1. The loss ended a 19-game winning streak for UMass (0-13, 0-1) in regular season conference games. The win lifted Richmond to 7-6 on the season.

While the loss gives UMass a 0-1 record to begin the Atlantic 10 season, head coach Patty Shea is not worried about the state of her team.

"We haven't learned to lose yet because we have such a great group of winners here," said Shea, who's team has won the last six conference titles. "There's just certain things we need to do better in order to be more successful."

The Spiders' offense struck first, scoring three goals in the first half. Using their penalty corners to their advantage, Sarah Adams scored the first goal of the night off of the UMass penalty 23:06 into the game for the Spiders. Richmond's offense continued to be strong throughout the rest of the first half, tallying two more goals before the end of the period. Michelle La Force scored at the 25:50 mark and Sarah Adams scored with just over three minutes left in the half.

The Spiders added to their lead early in the second half when Melissa Yuppa tallied Richmond's fourth goal of the game.

The second half also saw offensive output from UMass, with Jaime Bawden (Penticon, British Columbia) scoring 43:49 minutes into the game off of an assist from Sarah Bohonowicz (South Deerfield, Mass.).

UMass will host New Hampshire at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday.