For the second year in a row, the Richmond women’s lacrosse team had UMass’ number in the Atlantic 10 championship game.

Alexis Morton scored the game-winning goal for the Spiders with 3 minutes, 15 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to lift No. 2 Richmond to a 14-13 victory over the top-seeded Minutewomen in the conference title game at Rooney Field on the campus of Duquense in Pittsburgh on Sunday.

UMass finished its season 13-5 overall, while Richmond improved to 13-5 and earned the conference’s automatic bid into the NCAA Division 1 Tournament.

It was the second straight title for Richmond, which beat UMass 20-13 in last year’s championship game.

UMass, which won the regular season meeting between the two teams just a week earlier, trailed 6-2 on Sunday after one quarter before settling in and cutting the deficit to 7-6 at halftime.

The Minutewomen, which ran the table with an undefeated 9-0 regular season conference mark to earn the No. 1 seed, then outscored Richmond 4-2 in the third quarter to take a 10-9 lead into the fourth.

Kassidy Morris made it 11-9 UMass with a goal early in the fourth quarter, but Richmond responded with back-to-back goals to tie it at 11. 

That set up a wild final 10 minutes, where neither team led by more than one goal the rest of the way. Fiona McGowan made it 12-11 UMass, scoring her 32nd marker of the year, but Morton and Colleen Quinn netted back-to-back strikes for Richmond to give the Spiders their first lead (13-12) since halftime.

Skylar Simmonds tied it again for the Minutewomen with 5:19 to go, but Morton broke the tie with 3:15 left when she spun and fired a shot past UMass goalie Catrina Tobin (six saves) to make it 14-13.

UMass had a few chances to net the tying goal. Charlotte Wilmoth had the best look, as she got in close and put a low shot that was knocked away by the shins of Richmond goalie Abby Francioli (eight saves) with 41 seconds to play.

Richmond gained possession, got the ball in the UMass zone and called timeout with 16 seconds to go. The Spiders managed to play keep away and hold on until the final buzzer to secure the one-goal win and a conference crown.

Morris paced the UMass attack with four goals, while Wilmoth and McGowan each recorded a hat trick on the afternoon. McGowan set a new single-season program record with 56 assists. Kelly Brown had a team-high three ground balls, and Jordan Dean racked up 15 draw controls.