University of Richmond
10-3 (4-0)
UMass
9-4 (2-2)
#11/12 Spiders Blaze Past #18/19 UMass Saturday
04/19/2025 | Men's Lacrosse
Richmond, Va. — The #11/12 Richmond Spiders continued their dominant conference season with a statement 14-5 win over #18/19 UMass on Saturday, securing at least a share of the Atlantic 10 regular season title and locking in the No. 1 seed for the upcoming A-10 Championship tournament. The win marks Richmond's third over a top-20 opponent this season — the program's first time reaching that feat since 2017.
Richmond came out firing, opening the game with a 3-0 run in the first quarter. Joe Sheridan led the early charge with a pair of goals in that stretch and went on to match both his career and season-high with four goals on the day.
UMass got on the board at the 14:14 mark of the second quarter, but the Spiders defense clamped down, holding the Minutemen scoreless for nearly 20 minutes of game time. In that span, Richmond rattled off six unanswered goals to take full control.
UMass managed to string together back-to-back goals twice in the second half, but Richmond responded each time. The Spiders answered the first pair with three goals of their own, and followed the Minutemen's late-game surge with another two-goal response to seal the victory.
Behind Sheridan, Max Merklinger chipped in a hat trick and an assist. Lukas Olsson and Gavin Creo each scored twice and tallied one and zero assists respectively. Lucas Littlejohn added a man-up goal, while Tommy Stull (man-down) and Lucas Slate each found the back of the cage once. The assist column was filled out by Aidan O'Neil, Jack Ricciardi (two assists), Hunter Smith, Xander Welty, and Leo Caine.
In the cage, Zach Vigue made eight saves to earn the win and now sits just three shy of the program's career saves record.
Defensively, short-stick midfielder Jack Pilling led the way with three caused turnovers. Close defensemen Smith and Michael Farrell, along with long-stick midfielders Brayden Penafeather-Stevenson and Stull, added two caused turnovers apiece.
On the faceoff dot, Jared Chenoy made a strong return after missing the last two games due to injury. He went 5-of-6 on draws and collected five ground balls.
The Spiders controlled possession for most of the afternoon, scooping up 29 ground balls compared to UMass' 22 and outshooting the Minutemen, 41-22.
With the win, Richmond improves its postseason positioning and now turns its attention to its regular-season finale — a road trip to No. 14 Saint Joseph's in Philadelphia. The Spiders will look to clinch sole ownership of the A-10 regular season title in that 4:00 p.m. showdown on Friday, April 25.
