Duke faces an elite Richmond team in Round 1 of NCAA Lax Tournament

Duke men’s lacrosse will travel to Richmond, Virginia, this weekend to take on the No. 4-seed Richmond Spiders in the first round of the NCAA Lacrosse Tournament. Here’s everything you need to know about the Spiders ahead of the showdown.

Richmond ended the 2026 season with a 14-1 record, which culminated with a second-straight Atlantic-10 conference title after the team defeated Saint Joseph’s 8-6. The lone loss on the season was against Notre Dame, who are the 2-seed in the NCAA Tournament.

“To just be able to stay the course with the goals that we did set, and the commitments these guys have made, and the sacrifices they’ve made, and to earn another home game is really special,” Richmond head coach Dan Chemotti said on the team’s YouTube channel.

The Spiders rank second nationally in scoring offense with 15.5 goals per game in 2026. The team is just as stout on the other end of the field as they hold opponents to just 8.1 goals per game.

First team All-Atlantic 10 attacker Aidan O’Neil leads the Spiders in scoring on the season with 34 goals to go with 42 assists, making for a 72-point season. Gavin Creo has 33 goals, and Lucas Littlejohn has 40 to round out one of the very best offensive units in America.

Littlejohn’s 2.67 goals per game positions him tied for 22nd in Division 1 in the statistic.

At the faceoff dot, Vincent Gaylord has been superb, winning 58% of his restarts, which ranks him 20th nationally.

On the defensive side, Richmond forces turnovers at a 17.2 per game clip, with Hunter Smith leading in that department with 27 caused turnovers, good for 13th in the country.

Richmond’s goalie, Connor Knight, has played all but 37 minutes this season and owns a top-5 goals against average of 7.96 and a top-10 save percentage of .565.

“We knew right away, Connor was gonna be special,” Chemotti said. “He’s got an incredible work ethic. It doesn’t matter if it’s gameday or warmup, Connor is trying to get better.”

The Blue Devils will certainly have their hands full Saturday when these two teams square off. The game is set to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET and can be streamed on ESPNU.

This article originally appeared on Duke Wire: duke vs richmond ncaa lacrosse tournament preview