NCAA Rewind: Building Blocks Earned Key Experience for Richmond

Before USA Lacrosse Magazine looks ahead to what’s to come in 2025 — look out for our NCAA Way-Too-Early Top 25 rankings later this summer — our team of staff and contributors decided it was worth taking a last look at the 2024 college lacrosse season.

To do that, we’re taking a journey through 30 of the top teams in men’s and women’s lacrosse to see what went right, what went wrong and how we should feel about the season.

RICHMOND

USA Lacrosse preseason/final ranking: unranked/also considered
2024 record: 13-6 (7-2 Atlantic 10)

What went right: The Spiders won their second straight Atlantic 10 championship (and seventh overall), blending a mix of respectable offense (T-27th nationally, 13.68 goals per game) and defense (33rd nationally, 10.68 goals per game allowed). That’s the summation of Richmond’s season, though — just “respectable.” And there’s nothing wrong with that, but the Spiders had little in the way of flash. Instead, there were solid players up and down the depth chart.

Five players scored at least 20 goals, four of whom reached the 35-goal mark. Three feeders had at least 22 assists. Four players had 53 draws or more. Three primary defenders caused at least 21 turnovers, and those same three defenders also had at least 35 ground balls each.

Having that much depth is certainly commendable, and it was the backbone of Richmond’s success.

What went wrong: Despite the NCAA tournament berth, 2024 marked a slight regression from 2023 when the Spiders won a first-round NCAA tournament game and won 17 games overall. That was probably expected, though, with the departures of program staples Arden Tierney (Notre Dame) and Lindsey Frank (Northwestern).

Richmond was good against not-so-great teams (outside of a head-scratching 9-7 loss to VCU on April 20) but not good against above-average teams. The Spiders were uncompetitive against Navy (14-5 on March 2), Virginia (20-5 on March 6) and Penn (16-5 on May 10). The Penn loss ended Richmond’s season in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Season Highlight: The A-10 championship game was another excellent bout between rivals Richmond and UMass. After Alexis Morton gave Richmond a 14-13 lead with 3:15 left to play, freshman goalie Abby Francioli made a save with 43 seconds left to preserve the conference title.

Francioli is a building block for next year and beyond. She started the final 12 games after essentially splitting time with Nicole Burney over the first seven, finishing 2024 with a 45.5-percent save rate and 131 saves overall.

Verdict: In a year in which many thought Richmond would regress significantly, the Spiders still won a conference championship. Was there regression? Yes, a bit. But the result was potentially a stronger whole with key building blocks for another run at a title next year.