University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Rhode Island
Women's Soccer Wins Atlantic 10 Title
11/10/2002 | Women's Soccer
Nov. 10, 2002
DAYTON, OH -- Two goals and an assist by midfielder Meghan Ogilvie helped lead the third-seeded University of Richmond to a 3-1 victory over top-seeded University of Rhode Island in the 10th Annual Atlantic 10 Women's Soccer Championship at Baujan Field in Dayton, OH Sunday afternoon. The Spiders will earn the A-10's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship and improve to 13-5-2. The Rams will fall to 15-5-1.
Ogilvie had a hand in all three UR goals on her way to earning the tournament's Most Outstanding Player award. The sophomore from Springfield, Va. opened the scoring in the 15th minute with her third goal of the season. She took a cross from Bethany Shewmaker (Chapel Hill, N.C.) and blistered a shot to the left side from 17 yards out.
It wasn't until the final six minutes of the match when the fireworks started as the teams combined for three goals. Rhode Island's Sarah Johnston struck for the equalizer at 84:42 as she buried her sixth goal of the year in text-book fashion. Heather Kasparek sent a throw-in to Kelly McTurk, McTurk flicked it from the top right corner of the box to Johnston who scored from 12 yards out.
The Spiders countered just under two minutes later, and it was Ogilvie again who provided the eventual game-winner. She took a well-placed service from Whitney Sikes (Gastonia, N.C.), settled it and one-touched a ball along ground past URI goalkeeper Jamie Epperlein. Sikes, the Spiders leading scorer on the season, scored the game-winner in the Spiders 1-0 upset of the host University of Dayton Friday night. The two goals by Ogilvie ties her with seven other players for the A-10 Championship record for goals in a match.
In the 89th minute, freshman Annette Isham (Denver, Colo.) capped the scoring with a goal from a nearly impossible angle on the right endline. Isham accepted a pass from Ogilvie, and the freshman beat Epperlein under the crossbar to the far side panel from 18 yards away.
"This was a great win," said Richmond head coach Peter Albright. "We knew coming in that this was going to be a tough tournament and that we would have to beat Dayton and Rhode Island to win the championship. But we knew we had the team that could do it."
The Rams outshot the Spiders 14-9 for the match, including an 11-5 advantage in the second half. But Spiders' junior goalkeeper Megan Cox stood strong and earned herself a spot on the All-Championship Team with two fine games in goal. Cox followed-up her four-save performance in Friday night's semifinal shutout of Dayton with six saves today. Cox was joined on the All-Championship Team with teammates Ogilvie, Sikes and midfielder Edda Gardarsdottir.
McTurk, sophomore midfielder Claire Landon and freshman forward Melanie Kasparek were the Rams' All-Championship Team selections. Landon had the game-winner Friday in the 1-0 win over George Washington to send the Rams to their first A-10 title match appearance. Also named to team were sophomore midfielder Tesia Kozlowski and sophomore defender Jen Simonetti from Dayton and junior forward Kim Warner and sophomore defender Lindsay Bruno from George Washington.
