On Thursday, Sept. 15, Longwood ended their five-game road trip with a 2-1 victory over Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). The Lancers then went on to lose a 3-1 contest to visiting University of Richmond on Sunday, Sept. 18. In the game at VCU, sophomore midfielder Stacey de Grandhomme scored both of Longwood's goals at 4:51 and 65:08. Grandhomme also scored the only Longwood goal in the loss to University of Richmond. Senior defenseman Rachel Akers and senior midfielder Sarah Bietsch had one assist each against the VCU Rams. During the two games, junior goalkeeper Kaye Goulding had 13 saves with nine of them coming in the win over the Rams.
Against the Rams, the Lancers struck first with the goal coming within the first five minutes of the game. VCU responded with an aggressive first period with ten shots while Longwood only had three. Longwood's defense handled the offensive push well with five saves, but Goulding let one get by her at 26:49. The Rams' junior forward Arialle Hess scored the goal with the assist by junior forward Kelsey Scherrer.
Once again the Lancers' defense had to face multiple penalty corners. VCU had a total of five penalty corners with four of them coming in the first period. Longwood came out in the second period with a determination to get the go-ahead goal. Five out of the eight shots Longwood took were in the second period and eventually paid off with the game-winning goal coming at 65:08. The Lancers kept up the strong defense in the second period and also played smart giving the Rams only one penalty corner.
The Lancers tried to continue their momentum of playing well to take care of the visiting Spiders. The Spiders had something to say about that as they jumped out to a 2-0 lead. The two goals came within four minutes of each other. Sophomore forward Christina Amorose scored both goals for Richmond. Although Richmond went up early, Longwood did not let the score get to them. The Lancers outshot Richmond 7-4 in the first period, but it took almost the entire first half for Longwood to get on the scoreboard. De Grandhomme scored the unassisted goal with 21 seconds left on the clock.
In the second period, Longwood kept up the aggressive offense with another seven shots. Longwood outshot Richmond throughout the game 14-10. Unfortunately for the Lancers, the Spiders had sophomore goalkeeper Anna Zarkoski who brought her "A" game and recorded six saves. The opportunities were there for the Lancers with eight penalty corners and only five for Richmond. Junior forward Jackie Gyger added the final goal for Richmond.
The road does not get any easier for the Lancers as they travel to top-ranked University of North Carolina. Longwood will need a solid team effort like the game played against Duke. De Grandhomme leads the team with four goals on the season. They will need some offensive magic which the Lancers lacked against Duke.
