UMass women beat Richmond

AMHERST, Mass. - The Massachusetts women's soccer team closed out the regular season on Sunday with a 1-0 shutout of Richmond on Senior Day at Rudd Field. With the win, the Minutewomen move to 6-10-2, 5-6-0 in conference play, and have earned a berth into the Atlantic 10 tournament for the first time since 2004.

Senior Lauren Luckey (Hendersonville, Tenn./Pope John Paul II) was tested early on a shot by Liza Koch just under four minutes into the match, but made the stop for the Minutewomen.

Richmond came dangerously close to notching the first goal of the contest in as Emily Dale ripped a shot off the crossbar in the 16th minute.

Then at 36:37, a ball served into the box was brought down by sophomore Lindsey DiOrio (Bridgewater, N.J./Bridgewater-Raritan). DiOrio's touch pass went to Meredith Fox (Chalfont, Pa./Central Bucks South), who put the ball in the air for a flick-on by sophomore Lauren Yelinek (Ludlow, Mass./Minnechaug Regional/Texas Tech), her first goal of her UMass career.

Despite a 9-1 shot advantage for Richmond in the second half, the Minutewomen withstood the pressure to preserve the clean sheet. The Spiders hit the crossbar once more in the 51st minute and forced freshman Emily Cota (Green Lane, Pa./Upper Perkiomen)  to come up with a pair of saves in her 45 minutes of play, but were unable to find the back of the net.

Richmond finished with a 15-8 shot advantage and led in corner kicks, 8-5. In addtion to Cota's pair of stops, Luckey made two saves in the opening half, while Spiders' netminder Andrea Young recorded one on the day. Fouls were 11-9 against UMass.

As the No. 6 seed in the Atlantic 10 Tournament, the Minutewomen will play Fordham in the opening round of the tournament this Thursday, November 5, at 8 p.m., in Charlotte, N.C.