Richmond Pulls Away for Victory at Liberty, Saturday

The Richmond Spiders led the Liberty  Lady Flames lacrosse team by three at halftime before pulling away in the second half for an 18-7 victory, Saturday afternoon, at the Liberty Lacrosse Field.

With the win, Richmond moves to 1-0 on the year, while Liberty falls to 1-2 with the setback during its 2017 home opener.

Richmond's duo of Natalia Chaney (five goals) and Sam Geiersbach (four goals) combined for nine goals in a winning effort, while Marissa Brown added a game-high six assists. Liberty sophomore attacker Brianna McCaffrey paced Liberty with three goals, while Abby Britton, Courtney Brown and Kayla Foster each had one-goal, one-assist games.

McCaffrey scored three goals on Saturday against Richmond

Richmond started strong, scoring five times in the game's first six minutes to take a 5-1 lead. Liberty's first tally of the day came from McCaffrey with 25:26 remaining in the half. The Spiders' Chaney needed just 5:08 to record a hat trick, as she scored her third goal of the day on a free position shot to put the visitors ahead, 4-1, with 24:52 to play in the first half.

The Spiders padded their advantage over the next 14 minutes on goals from Kim Egizi, Geiersbach and Marissa Brown to lead, 7-2, with 11:29 left. The Lady Flames' Kayla Foster scored her fourth goal of the season during Richmond's spurt.

During the closing ten minutes of play in the first stanza, Liberty cut into the Richmond deficit. Freshman Grace Fletcher notched her second goal of 2017 on a feed from Brown to bring the score to 7-3. Less than three minutes later, McCaffrey scored on a free position shot to bring the score to 7-4 in favor of the Spiders with 6:20 left.

McCaffrey would score again with 1:12 to play in the half, while Brown sent the Lady Flames into the halftime break on a goal with just six ticks left, assisted by Abby Britton, to slice the deficit to three (9-6).

The Spiders seized control immediately to start the second frame, getting goals from Geiersbach and Kathleen Berkery to extend the visitors' lead to five, 11-6. The lead grew to 16-6 with 8:43 remaining in the contest on goals from Chaney, Katie Trainer, Geiersbach, Brown and Egizi.

The Lady Flames' lone marker of the second half came at the 3:58 mark, as Hannah Quast found Abby Britton for her second goal of the season. Richmond's Chaney and Berkery scored the final two goals of the contest.

Richmond outshot Liberty, 34-21, overall and held a 21-6 advantage in draw controls. The Lady Flames won the battle for ground balls, 26-19, led by a team-best five from senior Ashlyn Altieri. Fletcher, McCaffrey and Victoria Tickle scooped up three ground balls apiece, while Abby Britton led the squad with three caused turnovers.

Lady Flames goalkeeper Aubrie Tarris (1-2) was credited with the loss, allowing four goals during the first 5:43 of the contest before being replaced by Katherine Widrick (14 GA, seven saves).

Richmond's Megan Gianforte (1-0) surrendered seven goals and made eight assists in the victory.

Liberty is back in action on Wednesday. The Lady Flames host Virginia Tech (3-1) at 4 p.m. at the Liberty Lacrosse Field.