RICHMOND, Va. – In a game that head coach Tim Taylor proclaimed as one of his program's biggest tests in the 2025-26 non-conference portion of its schedule, the Navy women's basketball team when toe-to-toe with the University of Richmond for 30 minutes on Sunday before an inopportune stretch of cold shooting in the fourth quarter saw the Mids' hopes of pulling the road upset fade away. Taking on a Spider (4-1) team that began the year ranked in the AP Top-25 and is currently in the receiving votes portion of the national poll, the Mids (4-1) held a 41-40 edge on the Spiders' home court mid-way through the third quarter before eventually falling by a score of 69-56 at UR's Robins Center.

Quinn Boettinger (Fr., Schwenksville, Pa.) led a well-balanced scoring performance by Navy as four different players reached double figures. Boettinger posted career-highs with 14 points and eight rebounds in 13 minutes off the bench for the Mids on Sunday. Zoe Mesuch (Fr., Clintondale, N.Y.) and Zanai Barnett-Gay (Jr., Glenn Dale, Md.) were next in the scoring column for Navy with 12 and 11 points, respectively. In addition to her 11 points, Barnett-Gay spearheaded the Mids' defensive effort with a game-high four steals. Julianna Almeida (So., North Arlington, N.J.) rounded out the quartet with 10 points and a team-high five assists.

"I'm really proud of the effort that we showed out there this afternoon," remarked Taylor. "Richmond is a seasoned team with a bunch of seniors and juniors, who have been through the ringer before and found success in the NCAA Tournament. I'm proud of this team because they fought their tails off in a hostile environment and did a really, really good job to be right there. Unfortunately, we just didn't do a very good job of getting to the mid line. Their pick-and-pop action was really effective. We knew that if their 5's were hitting three pointers we might be in trouble. [Sam] Dewey sparked them and after controlling her for the most part early on, Maggie Doogan put on her Superman cape with 14 of her 17 points in the second half.

"We only turned the ball over seven times today, but missed quite a few point-blank shots. We were doing what we wanted to offensively for the most part. I don't feel like there were a ton of contested three-point shots against us, we just couldn't get the ball to go down. Three-point shooting was always going to be a factor today and they were 10-31 and we were 3-21, that's the difference in the game. I'm excited about where we're going with this team. There's things that we've got to fix and we know that, but we'll learn from this."

The hometown girl Kate Samson (Sr., Richmond, Va.) kick-started the action on Sunday afternoon as she won the opening tip and 20 seconds later laid in the ball for an early 2-0 lead for Navy. Richmond fired back with eight unanswered points before Samson found Mesuch with a kick-out three-pointer at 7:44. The Spiders continued their fast start and built up a 16-7 lead by the 4:43 mark of the first quarter. Once again, Mesuch had the answer for the Mids with her second three-pointer of the game to help Navy pull with six points just 15 seconds later. Down 16-10, the Mids shaved one point off their deficit over the final four minutes as Almeida closed the quarter with a layup with 42 seconds remaining in the period.

Coming out of the first quarter break down 19-14, Navy rattled off five straight points to draw even with Richmond by the 7:35 mark. Manufactured from a Barnett-Gay steal, Samson passed out the post to Saran Moschella (Jr., Staten Island, N.Y.) on the wing to net the game-tying three-pointer. Temporarily off their game, the Spiders responded with nine straight points, all via treys over the next three minutes. Trailing 28-19 and later 30-21, the Mids rode the duo of Boettinger and Barnett-Gay down the stretch for a combined nine points as Navy tightened the contest to 31-30 prior the halftime intermission. The Mids forced the Spiders into five turnovers and shot 5-6 from the foul line to fuel their second quarter comeback.

Invigorated by this strong close, Navy opened the second half on a 6-2 run to jump into the lead 36-33. All six of those points came within 42 seconds (8:16-7:34) as Almeida led off the run with a layup before Moschella deflected the in-bounds pass to Barnett-Gay for two baskets within 11 seconds of each other. Another Barnett-Gay layup on the ensuing possession capped the run. The ebbs and flows of the highly competitive action continued as Richmond tied it up 36-36 at 6:04 before Boettinger converted an 'and-one' the next time down the court followed by a driving layup by Mesuch 13 seconds later. The five-point lead for the Mids was short-lived as the Spider immediately fired back and re-tied the game 41-41 at 3:53. It stayed a two-possession game for the remainder of the quarter with Richmond going up by as much as five (46-41) and Navy getting to within one at 46-45 and 47-46. A layup by Preseason National Player of the Year candidate Maggie Doogan at the buzzer sent the teams back to their respective huddles with the Spiders up 49-46.

Unfortunately for the Mids, that late basket sparked something in the hosts and the Spiders flexed their seasoned skillset to the tune of nine straight points to open the fourth quarter. After Mesuch quelled that initial run with her fourth basket of the game, Richmond picked up where it was and extended its lead out to 15, 65-50 by the 4:29 juncture of the period. Navy was unable to find its footing offensively down the stretch as all six of its closing points came via the foul line as it rounded out the game with a final score of 69-56.

In the 20-10 period, Richmond out-shot Navy, 52.9 percent (9-17) to 16.7 (2-12) and out-rebounded the Mids, 13-5.
 
For the game, Richmond out-shot Navy, 40.3 percent (25-62) to 31.1 (19-61) from the field and 32.3 percent (10-31) to 14.3 (3-21) from three-point range. The Mids were extremely efficient from the free throw line on Sunday knocking down 88.2 percent (15-17) of their foul shots versus a 56.3 (9-16) mark for the Spiders.

Richmond dominated Navy on the glass with a 16-rebound advantage, 47-31. The Spiders were led by Doogan's 14 caroms and 18 offensive rebounds. Boettinger paced the Mids with a career-high eight rebounds.

Navy was crisp with its ball-handling with a positive 12-to-7 assist-to-turnover ratio. Almeida facilitated on a team-high five made baskets.

Defensively, the Mids forced the Spiders into 13 turnovers and were credited with six steals. Barnett-Gay led all players with four steals.

"We really struggled with our rebounding," commented Taylor. "We gave up 18 offensive rebounds and they out-rebounded us 47-31. That's a huge factor in today's outcome. We've got to clean that up, especially when you're going up against a top-30 team like Richmond at their place."

Next up for the Mids will be two days of action as part of the 2025 Navy Classic. Starting on Saturday and running through Sunday, Navy will host Manhattan first on Nov. 29 before turning its attention the following day to Duquesne. Both games are scheduled for 1 p.m. tip-offs at Alumni Hall. Additionally, Liberty will take on Duquesne on Saturday and Manhattan on Sunday in a pair of 3:30 p.m. neutral-site contests.