The University of Richmond men’s lacrosse team concluded its season on May 10 after a 14-12 loss to Duke in the NCAA Tournament First Round at Robins Stadium. The game drew a record-setting crowd of 6,805 fans, marking both the highest-attended Richmond lacrosse game and the most attended first round game in NCAA history.
This match capped off a historic year for the Spiders, who hosted an NCAA Tournament game at Robins Stadium for the first time as the No. 2-ranked and fourth-seeded team. The event highlighted significant achievements and milestones reached by the program during this season.
Offensively, Gavin Creo led Richmond with four goals. Aidan O’Neil contributed one goal and two assists, breaking Richmond’s single-season points record with his third point of the night. Joe Sheridan and Daniel Picart each scored twice, while Leo Caine added one goal. Lucas Littlejohn finished with a goal and an assist, and Nate Murphy recorded an assist as well.
Defensively, Connor Knight made twelve saves in goal for Richmond. The Spiders completed 25 out of 26 clears compared to Duke’s 17 out of 19. Both teams were close in turnovers—Richmond had thirteen while Duke had fourteen—with Jack Pilling leading eight forced turnovers for the Spiders.
Duke controlled possession by winning more ground balls (35-27) and faceoffs (21-for-28), which helped them maintain field position throughout much of the contest. Despite this advantage for Duke, Richmond built a lead late into the fourth quarter before Duke responded with five unanswered goals to secure victory.
“It’s a game of runs and who can control those runs and the overall pace of the game,” said Gavin Creo after the match. “I think Duke did a better job of that today, and that’s definitely something we can learn from.”
