Greetings Spiders!
 I'd like to add my voice to the chorus of those who have offered congratulations and appreciation to the University of Richmond's entire Class of 2025, including the more than 100 student-athletes who received degrees earlier this month. To that special group, thank you for leaving Richmond Athletics in a better place than you found it, and best of luck in whatever comes next!
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MEN'S LACROSSE MAKES HISTORY
I'll always remember the spring 2025 semester as the time two of our sport programs proved they can win in the national spotlight. Two months after women's basketball recorded its first NCAA Tournament win, men's lacrosse broke through, defeating 8-seed North Carolina 13-10 to advance in the NCAA Tournament for the first time.
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Richmond's reward for its milestone victory was a matchup against top-seeded Cornell in the national quarterfinals. I was one of the proud contingent of hundreds of UR fans who journeyed to Long Island to see the Spiders push the nation's top team to its absolute limit. Richmond led at halftime and late into the fourth quarter before ultimately coming up one goal short, falling 13-12.
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The 2024-25 Spiders will always be remembered as a team that took an already successful program to new heights and cemented UR's status as one of the premier programs in college lacrosse. Congratulations to coach Dan Chemotti, his staff, and all our Spiders on a legendary run and for setting a new standard for men's lax at Richmond.
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SPRING SPORTS SUCCESSES
Even in a new conference, the Spider women's golf team found itself in a familiar place at last month's inaugural A-10 Championship: atop the leaderboard. The Spiders overcame a five-shot deficit in the third and final round to surge past Loyola Chicago and capture their fifth conference championship in the last nine years. Hannah Lydic won the individual title and led the Spiders again at the NCAA Regionals in Charlottesville, where she finished 30th and the team placed 11th, registering both the best individual and team finishes at the Regionals in program history.
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Days after the women won the Atlantic 10 title, the men's golf team finished second by the slimmest possible margin, finishing one stroke behind A-10 champion Davidson. The runner-up finish was Richmond's best showing at the A-10 Men's Golf Championship since winning it in 2017. Senior Cole Ekert finished second in his final collegiate tournament, wrapping up a career that saw him become the program's career scoring leader and its first four-time All-Atlantic 10 selection.
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The women's tennis team also came as close as possible to winning a conference title in April, placing second at the A-10 Championship. The 3-seed Spiders swept their way to the championship match, where they fell to VCU 4-1, snapping an 11-match win streak that spanned more than a month. UR finished the season at 16-7, its most wins since 2009.
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The men's tennis team reached the semifinals at the A-10 Championship before dropping a 4-2 decision to 2-seed VCU. It was both Richmond's third straight winning season (12-9) and its third straight appearance in the A-10 semifinals.
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Women's lacrosse also reached the semifinal round at the Atlantic 10 Championship, where the Spiders were eliminated by 1-seed Massachusetts at Robins Stadium. The team finished the year 7-3 in Atlantic 10 play and 11-8 overall, its ninth straight winning campaign.
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Spider baseball showed tremendous growth in coach Mik Aoki's second season, registering 33 wins, the most for the program in 21 years! Those victories included a trio of wins against ACC opponents and a sweep of rival VCU at The Diamond earlier this month.
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Track & field is the last Spiders team standing this school year. Richmond's two individual champions from the A-10 Championship — Molly Wise (long jump) and Darya Mikusova (400m hurdles) — are set to compete at the NCAA Preliminaries in Jacksonville at the end of the month. The Spiders also captured a pair of relay gold medals at the meet, winning the 4x800m relay and the 4x400m relay as senior Virginia Beringer ran down the 400m individual gold medalist from UMass in the final straightaway to secure the win for Richmond. Congratulations to the team on a fantastic showing at the A-10 meet and best of luck to Molly and Darya in the NCAAs!
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ACADEMIC PERFECTION
The NCAA's release of updated academic data earlier this month reinforced what we already know — Spider student-athletes are serious about academic achievement. Richmond's field hockey, men's cross country, men's golf, women's golf, women's basketball, and swimming & diving programs all received the highest possible Academic Progress Rate (APR) score for the four-year period that now includes data through the 2023-24 academic year. Their perfect scores of 1,000 reflect uninterrupted progress toward a degree for all recruited student-athletes on each team, and Richmond's six teams with perfect scores are its most at any point in the last six years. Every Spiders team received an APR score of 976 or higher, well above the 930 required by the NCAA.
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The record-breaking results of the last school year don't belong to our student-athletes alone, however. The Spider faithful stepped up for our student-athletes like never before during last month's UR Here Giving Day, contributing over $1.28 million to Richmond Athletics, an increase of more than 25 percent from 2024. This type of generosity from our greater Spider family is one of the many reasons I'm convinced that the best days for Richmond Athletics are yet to come, even as outside forces shift the very foundations of intercollegiate sports.
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College athletics is approaching a crossroads, and it's impossible to be certain exactly where it's headed. Regardless of the destination, Richmond Athletics will continue to prioritize academic excellence, competitive success, and the student-athlete experience on the journey. As we decide how best to achieve those priorities in 2025-26 and beyond, I look forward to sharing our plans with our closest friends, fans, and family. Until then, I wish you a happy and healthy summer! Â
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Take care, and ... Go Spiders!
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