The LU field hockey team finished the regular season on a high note this weekend, winning two NorPac games in North Carolina to set the stage for the first round of the NorPac conference tournament tomorrow in Lynchburg.
On Friday, the team looked to be all but beaten at Appalachian State, down 2-0 with six minutes to play. However, the final five and a half minutes proved to be something special for Longwood (8-11, 6-2 NorPac), with three players scoring four times to propel the Lancers to the win.
Vanessa Tapper scored at 64:29, off a rebound passed by App State keeper Sarah Anderson. Hollie MacDonald tied it 2:18 later after a fight for the ball in front of the net. Tapper scored her second of the game, and her career, with 2:59 to play after dribbling around the ASU defense and getting wide open. Stacey de Grandhomme’s tally with four seconds left was the exclamation point on an incredible comeback.
On Sunday, the Lancers played Davidson and won 2-1. All three of the match’s goals were scored in a nine-minute span, and it was again a Longwood comeback, albeit a less shocking one, that propelled the visitors to a win. Nicole Deckard converted a Kim Ruiter cross 13:32 in, and 4:48 later, Meghan O’Connor assisted on a give-and-go to Jennifer Burris, giving the Lancers a 2-1 lead that they didn’t lose.
Tomorrow, at the campus of Liberty University in Lynchburg, the team will play the No. 3 seed, Pacific, in the NorPac’s West Division in the tournament’s first round at 6:30 p.m. Longwood is the No. 2 seed in the East behind Liberty. If they win, they will play the Stanford-Davidson winner in the semifinals on Friday at 4 p.m. If they lose, they play the Stanford-Davidson loser in the final game of the season at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
