Nov. 10, 2002

DAYTON, Ohio - The University of Rhode Island dropped a tough 3-1 decision against Richmond in the championship game of the 2002 Atlantic 10 Women's Soccer Championship on Sunday afternoon at Baujan Field. Richmond earned the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship while Rhode Island, now 15-5-1 on the season, will wait to hear if it receives an at-large bid. The bids will be announced during the NCAA selection show, televised live on ESPN News at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 11.

Richmond opened the scoring for the game while sophomore Meghan Ogilvie, the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, scored on an assist from Bethany Shewmaker. The Spiders took a 1-0 lead into halftime.

It wasn't until the final six minutes of the match when the fireworks started as the teams combined for three goals. Rhode Island's Sarah Johnston struck for the equalizer at 84:42 as she buried her sixth goal of the year in text-book fashion. Heather Kasparek sent a throw-in to Kelly McTurk, McTurk flicked it from the top right corner of the box to Johnston who scored from 12 yards out. The Spiders countered just under two minutes later, and it was Ogilvie again who provided the eventual game-winner. She took a well-placed service from Whitney Sikes, settled it and one-touched a ball along ground past URI goalkeeper Jamie Epperlein. In the 89th minute, Annette Isham capped the scoring with a goal on an assist from Ogilvie.

The Rams out shot the Spiders 14-9 for the match, including an 11-5 advantage in the second half. McTurk, sophomore midfielder Claire Landon and freshman forward Melanie Kasparek were the Rams' All-Championship Team selections. Landon had the game-winner Friday in the 1-0 win over George Washington to send the Rams to their first A-10 title match appearance.