Longwood's women's soccer team tallied one win and one loss during play last week. The women's team lost at home 3-2 to Charleston Southern University (CSU) of the Big South Conference last Friday. They quickly rebounded, however, with a home victory over South Carolina State University on Sunday, 2-1. Longwood is hovering right around the .500 mark (4-5-3) with six games left to play this season.
Charleston Southern scored in the second minute to take an early 1-0 lead. Morgann Wood was the player who scored the goal after corralling a loose ball at the top of the box and kicking it into the upper left side of the net. The Lady Bucs scored again in the 39th minute on a goal from Gina Thomas. Charleston Southern took a 2-0 lead into halftime.
Longwood dictated the pace of play well in the second half, as senior captain Kacie Oliver scored the first goal in the 56th minute. The Lancers rattled off nine straight unanswered shots, three of which were at the net but were saved. The Lady Bucs scored the game-winner in the 84th minute. The Lancers' Nikki Glisson scored in the 88th minute after a pass from Mackenzie King, but it was too little, too late.
Longwood outshot CSU 20-11, including 7-6 in shots on-goal. Glisson had six shots, Oliver five and Kelsey Pardue three. Kyra Byron and Shelby Hall each played a half in front of the net for Longwood. Amy Arroyo played all 90 minutes for CSU. Longwood and CSU are now tied 4-4 all-time.
After taking Saturday off, Longwood defeated South Carolina State University on Sunday. The Lancers struck first in the ninth minute when Pardue received a pass from Kelsey McDonald and kicked the ball into the lower right corner of the net. Longwood tallied a second goal in the 14th minute when junior captain Lindsey Ottavio kicked a hard shot past the keeper and into the net. It was Ottavio's first goal of the season and her twentieth in her collegiate career. She ranks fifth on the all-time list. Longwood held the lead 2-0 at the half.
South Carolina scored early in the second half in the 55th minute on a header by Morgan Roesler after a corner kick from Veronica Aguilar. That was as close as the visitors would get, however, as Longwood held tough defensively and won the game.
The Lancers had 12 shots in the second half, eight of which were on-goal. Longwood had a 19-6 overall edge in shots taken (15-3 on-goal). Shelby Hall started her first career game at goalkeeper and played all 90 minutes registering two saves. Mariah Hebbe played all 90 minutes in front of the net for the visitors and had 11 saves. Longwood has never lost to South Carolina State and now leads the all-time series 6-0-1.
The women's team is taking a much needed breather this week. They do not play again until Friday, Oct. 7 when ACC member North Carolina State University comes to town. First kick for that game is set for 7 p.m. at the Athletics Complex.
In a press release on longwoodlancers.com, head coach Todd Dyer looked forward to NC State.
"…We'll have to put a complete game together, on both sides of the ball, and for 90 minutes, if we're going to get something out of our game against North Carolina State. On that note, we're very excited to be hosting an ACC opponent because that is currently the strongest and deepest league in the entire nation right now, and we look forward to seeing how we match up. We invite, and encourage, all of 'Lancer Nation' to come out and support our women's soccer program on that very special night."