RICHMOND, Va. – The No. 17/15 Navy women's lacrosse team (3-0) recorded a decisive 21-11 victory on Tuesday afternoon at No. 20/19 Richmond (2-1) at Robins Stadium in Richmond, Va. With the win, the Midshipmen have now recorded at least one victory over a ranked opponent in eight of the last nine seasons.
 
"It was a quick turnaround from our last game," head coach Cindy Timchal said of the game that was moved up 24 hours to avoid expected inclement weather. "We were in Pennsylvania on Saturday; came back for a practice on Monday at home in Maryland; headed down to Virginia last night; and played here today in Richmond today.
 
"Richmond is a solid team that are the defending A-10 Champions and they returned a lot of key players. We had a lot to contend with on both sides of the ball, including a really solid goaltender who helped lead them to the title last year. It is an NCAA Tournament team and a great victory for Navy on the road.
 
"There were contributors for us everywhere on the field," Timchal added. "It was great to see more players see action. It was a total team effort against a ranked opponent today. It is not about the standings, but standing alongside one another. It was a great win for Navy women's lacrosse and we have another big game on Sunday at home against Harvard."
 
Ten different Mids combined to score 21 goals, including three players that finished with hat tricks.
 
Emma Kennedy led the charge with a career-high five goals, including netting four of her five scores in the third quarter after the Spiders trimmed the Midshipmen's lead to just four.
 
Alyssa Chung and Emily Messinese finished with four goals apiece. The hat trick was Chung's second in her first three games, while Messinese has three consecutive hat tricks to start the season and 27 for her career. Mikayla Williams chipped in a pair of scores, while Chloe Brown, Tori DiCarlo, Lola Leone, Taylor Miles, Maura Murphy, and Ava Yovino also found the back of the net. For Brown, the goal was the first of her collegiate career, while it was the first goal for Murphy since scoring a pair of goals in the 2023 season opener at No. 11 Duke.
 
Miles and Yovino led the team with two assists apiece, while Messinese and Bella Paradiso each added helpers.
 
Defensively, Navy caused five of Richmond's 13 turnovers on the day. Felicia Giglio and Jaclyn Johns finished with two caused turnovers apiece with Chung adding a takeaway. Giglio and Yovino picked up three ground balls apiece with Johns and Caroline Gage picking up ground balls. Chung, DiCarlo, Leone, Jalin Jenkins, Emma Richardell, and Lily Schmalz rounded out the GBs for the Midshipmen.
 
Giglio finished the game with four saves in nearly 55 minutes of action on the day to go along with her three ground balls and two caused turnovers. Richardell closed out the final five-plus minutes in the cage recording a save and not allowing a goal.
 
The Midshipmen won the draw control battle, 23-12. Alyssa Daley notched her first double-digit draw performance of the season, finishing with a season-high 15 draw wins. Williams added three draw controls, while Paradiso earned a draw win.
 
"I thought Alyssa rebounded really well after an off day in the circle in the snow at Villanova," Timchal stated. "Knowing that Richmond had a dominant player in the draw circle, I thought that Alyssa and our draw unit was really critical for us."
 
For the Spiders, Grace Muldoon led the way with four goals, while Colleen Quinn and Juliana Stanley finished with two scores apiece. Alexis Morton paced Richmond with five assists. Hannah Custer won seven draw controls to lead the home team. At goal, Abby Francioli finished the game with eight saves in the loss.
 
In the first quarter, the Midshipmen jumped out to an eight-goal advantage. Navy used a 5-0 run to start the game thanks to two goals by Williams and scores by Chung, Messinese, and DiCarlo. The Spiders countered with a goal, but the Mids answered with scores by Chung, Kennedy, and Messinese to push the advantage to 9-1. Richmond ended the quarter with a goal to trim the Navy lead to seven.
 
The Spiders scored one minute into the second quarter, but defense for both teams stood strong holding one another out of the goal for the next 10 minutes of play. The Midshipmen used a free-position goal by Chung to increase the advantage back to seven. The goal gave Chung her second hat trick in her first three collegiate games. Richmond was able to score with a minute remaining in the half to provide the halftime score, 10-4.
 
Richmond scored the first two goals of the second half to close the gap to within four, 10-6. Miles and Kennedy both found the back of the net to push the advantage back to six. Following a Spider goal, Kennedy completed her hat trick with her third goal. Richmond scored to cut the margin to five, but Messinese and Kennedy countered with goals to once again push the Navy lead to seven, 15-8. Kennedy responded to a Spider score with her fourth goal of the quarter to send the game into the final quarter of play with the Mids in front, 16-9.
 
In the fourth quarter, Messinese and Chung started off the frame with goals to increase the Midshipmen's advantage to nine. Back-to-back scores by the Spiders closed the gap to seven, but the Mids closed the game with a 3-0 run with goals by Brown, Leone, and Murphy to provide the final margin of 21-11.
 
Up next, Navy hosts Harvard (1-0) at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis on Sunday, Feb. 23 at 11:00 a.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and live stats will be available. Additionally, the game will be on the radio, airing on 1430 AM / 99.9 FM WNAV. The radio broadcast is also available on wnav.com and on WNAV on the Audacy app.