Women's Lacrosse takes on Richmond in Sunday's Atlantic 10 Championship Game

PITTSBURGH, Pa. –The top-seeded Massachusetts women's lacrosse team will take on No. 2-seeded Richmond in Sunday's Atlantic 10 Championship game. The Minutewomen and the Spiders start at noon on ESPN+ from Rooney Field.

Repeat of the championship

Sunday's championship game marks a rematch of last season's title game between UMass and Richmond. The Spiders claimed last year's title with a 20-13 victory in Richmond.

Last timeout

UMass earned a 10-9 victory over Saint Joseph's in the Atlantic 10 semifinals on Friday in Richmond. Skylar Simmonds led the UMass offense with two goals and two assists Fiona McGowan And Charlotte Wilmot each scored a pair of goals. The Minutewomen jumped out to a 7-1 lead late in the second quarter before the Hawks finally tied things up twice in the fourth frame. Lil Hancock gave UMass a 9-8 lead in the fourth before McGowan banked in the eventual game-winning goal with 4:33 to play.

Make it 12

The Minutewomen earned their 12th consecutive win on Friday with a 10-9 win over Saint Joseph's in the A-10 semifinals.

Tobin's Career Day
Catrina Tobin had a career day between the pipes in UMass' semifinal win over Saint Joseph's on Friday, stopping a career-high 14 shots as she picked up her 13th win of the season. Tobin came up with a timely save with 2:30 left to keep the Minutewomen up by one before stopping her 14th shot of the day with 15 seconds left to secure the win.

Queen of the draw
Jordan Dean set a new NCAA Division I single-season record with 238 draw controls during the season, passing Maddie Jenner (Duke, 2022) for the most in a season after scoring 17 points in the Richmond win. Dean became the second player in UMass program history to eclipse 400 career draw controls and set a new single-season program mark in the home finale against George Washington. The junior finished the regular season as the DI leader in draw checks per game at 14.88 and achieved double-digit draw checks in 14 of 16 games this season.

Causes problems
Audra Toson became the second Minutewoman in program history to reach 100 and racked up career-high turnovers when she finished with a pair in UMass' 20-7 win over Duquesne. The 2023 A-10 Defensive Player of the Year has racked up 114 career turnovers and is two away from setting a new program record currently held by Kristin St. Hilaire's (2002-05) 115. This season, Tosone nine games with multiple resulted in turnovers and had 22 in the past eight games.

Back-to-back

UMass had three individuals claim back-to-back major Atlantic 10 awards, as announced by the league Wednesday afternoon. Fiona McGowan repeated as the league's Offensive Player of the Year for the second consecutive season Audra Toson earned consecutive A-10 Defensive Player of the Year awards. Head coach Jana Drummond also earned her second A-10 Coach of the Year award in as many seasons.

All League

The Minutewomen placed four players on the Atlantic 10 First-Team All-Conference squad Jordan Dean, Fiona McGowan, Cassidy MorrisAnd Audra Toson. Layton Nass, Catrina TobinAnd Charlotte Wilmot represented UMass on the second-team all-league squad Ava Connaughton And Lil Hancock earned a spot on the A-10 All-Rookie Team. McGowan and Tosone were also named to the competition's all-academic squad.

Helping hand
Fiona McGowan moved to third all-time at UMass in career assists after finishing with seven in the win over UConn and added an assist against GW to tie Holly Turner's (2018) 51 for second place. McGowan needs just two assists to pass Erika Eipp (2016) for the program record, while her 125 career assists are the third-most all-time. The forward finished the regular season ranked third among Division I leaders in assists per game with 3.31 and fifth in total assists with 53. McGowan also ranks fourth all-time in career points at UMass with 242.

Mo' Goals
Cassidy Morris leads UMass in goals this season with 59 and tied with Katie Ferris (2012) for sixth most in a single season by a Minutewoman in Friday's A-10 semifinal. Morris finished the regular season ranked 19th among Division I leaders in goals per game at 3.63, while her 58 regular season goals ranked 21st nationally. The forward scored hat tricks in 13 of 16 games during the regular season with five or more goals in four games, including seven in wins over UConn and VCU.