The Lancers had two roads games over the weekend in the state of North Carolina. On Saturday, Oct. 1 the women fell at Davidson in a close game, 2-1. Senior forward Amanda Babineau scored Longwood's lone goal of the match. The loss did not deter the Lancers, as they traveled to Appalachian State the next day, Sunday, Oct. 2 and came out on top 3-0. Junior midfielder Christina Verhulst, freshman forward Jessica Diaz and redshirt senior forward Lauren Sullivan put the ball in the goal for the Lancers. Both Davidson and Appalachian State are members of the Northern Pacific Field Hockey Conference (NorPac), as is Longwood. Although Longwood is under .500 on the season (6-7), they are 2-1 in conference play with the weekend victory as well as the win over in-state foe Radford.
Against Davidson, there were some struggles for the Lancers. The goal for Longwood came early from Babineau off of a rebound from a missed shot by sophomore midfielder Stacey De Grandhomme at 7:41. The Lady Wildcats outshot the Lancers 15-5. It was a difficult task all game for the Lancers' offense to get going. The Lady Wildcats responded quickly to Babineau's goal by putting their own goal in at 8:52. Junior forward Finely Amato was credited with the goal. Longwood's defense played well enough to keep the game close, despite the ball control Davidson had. The defense also played strong against the penalty corners with Davidson having eight opportunities, five coming in the second period. Junior goalkeeper Kaye Goulding had nine saves and played the entire 70 minutes. Amato struck again for the Wildcats, scoring the match-winning goal at 61:51 following a turnover.
Longwood had a bad taste in their mouth from the tough loss to conference opponent Davidson. So, the Lancers' defense put the team back on their feet by completing a shutout against Appalachian State. The Lancers persevered, even though they were outshot 12-9. Not only were the Lancers outshot, but Appalachian State had a 10-2 advantage in penalty corners. This was the second shutout for the Lancers with Goulding anchoring the defense in front of the goal. During the first period, the offensive struggle carried over from the Davidson match. Finally, right before the half, Verhulst scored an unassisted goal from 13 yards out to give Longwood a 1-0 lead at the half. In the second period, Longwood only took three shots, but two of them resulted in goals for the Lancers. The one shot that did not go in set up a rebound goal for Diaz at 56:46 to extend the lead to 2-0. The last goal came at 65:37, when Sullivan received a pass from de Grandhomme in the middle of the field and punched it in from 10 yards out.
Longwood is back in action on Thursday, Oct. 6 at 3:30 pm. They will face another conference opponent, Pacific, in Richmond. The site is a neutral location. Pacific (2-6, 0-4) is winless in the conference and Longwood (6-7, 2-1) is looking to get to .500 on the season.
