Sports in Brief

Men’s Cross Country

Lou Onesty Invitational

CHARLOTTESVILLE – The Rams finished in seventh place Saturday at University of Virginia’s Lou Onesty Invitational, as Cary Chaffee (Richmond/Hermitage HS) finished ninth in a field of 115.

Chaffee ran the 8-kilometer stretch in 25:33:7, and Jay Wyss (Richmond/J.R. Tucker HS) finished 22nd overall with 25:58:7.

VCU totaled 177 points, finishing 17 points behind High Point who placed sixth out of the 12 teams present.

Liberty won the team title, for 41 points, Virginia came in second with 88 and William & Mary in third with 94 points.

Women’s Cross Country

Lou Onesty International

CHARLOTTESVILLE – VCU’s Regan Merriam (Fredericksburg/Massaponax HS) placed 66th at 20:34:1 to put the Rams in ninth at U.Va.’s Lou Onesty Invitational Saturday.

The women’s cross-country team scored 273 points among 11 other teams. Virginia came out with 29 points.

Michelle Sikes of Wake Forest won the individual gold, running the 5-kilometer distance in 17:20.4.

Field Hockey

On Sunday, the field hockey team lost their first home game of the season against Rider University 0-4 at Cary Street Field.

No points were scored in the game until the second half, when the Broncs opened up with 15 shots over the Rams’ five.

Tricia Crotty converted Erin McGinnis’s assist in the 40th minute of play and scored another unassisted goal in the 62nd minute. Meaghan Schweers scored two goals in 45 seconds on the 46th minute of the game.

Men’s Soccer

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The men’s soccer team faced Michigan State on Friday, where the opposition scored the only point of the game.

Kenzo Webster was the man of the game, shooting three of Michigan’s five shots-on-goal, and scoring their lone point.

The fouls were relatively one-sided, as VCU collected 22 fouls and MSU gathered five.

The Spartans’ goalkeeper Jason Tillman had seven saves and Andrew Dykstra (Woodbridge/Osbourn Park HS) saved four shots for the Rams.

Women’s Soccer

The women’s soccer team went up against the Colgate Raiders in their first home game Saturday night, losing 0-1.

Colgate’s Jillian Arnault converted a pass from Franny Iacuzzi, shooting the ball just between Lauren Hardison and the right goal post.

VCU shot 12 times and made five shots-on-goal, whereas Colgate shot four times, made two shots-on-goal and scored on one of those. The closest shot VCU managed was a header into the top bar during the second half.

Both teams were balanced in fouls but the assistant coach Erik Leiben expressed his disappointment. He said, “We have five national players, and we should not have lost to the Raiders for any reason. I’m disappointed and the team’s disappointed. They know they’re better than that.”

Fullback Sierra Stephen-Dowd (Vienna/Oakton HS) played an effective role in keeping the ball on Colgate’s end of the field for most of the second half, but the Rams could not convert their opportunities.

After the match, co-head coach Denise Schilte-Brown said, “Tonight we made a couple mistakes, and it would have been better if we converted our chances.”

Co-head coach Chris Brown said, “We’re disappointed that this had to be the first game at home,” and he indicated they could still benefit from the loss “as long as they learn from their mistakes and take it with them to the next game.”

Volleyball

On Wednesday, Sept. 6 the volleyball team played its first home game of the season.

VCU volleyball team shut out Hampton University 3-0 (30-11, 30-11, 30-14), shooting .451.

Ana Luiza de Borja (Florianopolis, Brazil) put 11 kills on the record and Renata Salvatori (Londrina, Brazil) served up half of the team’s 12 aces.

In VCU’s first game of the Colonial Athletic Association, VCU hit for .239 gaining a victory over UNC Wilmington Friday night (24-30, 30-25, 30-15, 30-26).

De Borja had seven digs with 16 kills and Ludmila Francescatto (Fraiburga, Brazil) provided 17 kills.

VCU’s record thus far is 5-3.

Sunday’s game yielded similar results, in their first with VCU winning over Georgia State 3-0 (30-20, 30-27, 30-16).

The Rams hit .287 against GSU’s .059. Ludmila Francescatto and Ana Luiza de Borja each dished out 13 kills. Elisa Kuehnel (Dresden, Germany) also contributed seven kills.