The first 15 minutes of the second half saw Kent State University (KSU) secure their dominating 5-1 victory against visiting Longwood with three goals, two from the stick of KSU senior forward Caroline Corthouts.
Along with earning her first goal of the season early in the first half, Corthouts finished with three goals, a career-high.
“Kent State played well, and they're a good team, but we certainly didn't give a good showing of ourselves. We're disappointed as a group about that," said field hockey head coach Iain Byers on the official Longwood athletics website.
KSU junior forward Madison Thompson served an assist to Corthouts and scored a goal of her own.
The reigning Mid-American Conference (MAC) champion Kent State (2-6-0, 1-0) had more than twice as many shots than Longwood (3-5-0, 1-2-0), leading the overall count 25-12.
According to Byers on the Longwood athletics official website, the Lancers offense was unable to generate the “connections required to get the ball into good attacking spaces.”
Of the 25 shots, junior goalkeeper Lauren Bernard was forced to make eight saves for the Lancers.
Longwood senior midfielder Meghan O’Connor saved the Lancers from a shutout in the last five minutes of play. This was the first goal of her career.
Longwood was Kent State’s first MAC game and win of 2015.
The Lancers will host their next MAC opponent, Ball State University (1-9-0), at home on Oct. 2 at 5 p.m.
This will be Ball State’s first conference game. They are coming off an ESPN3 televised 6-1 loss to nationally ranked No. 16 Iowa State Univeristy.
"We have a good opportunity to bounce back this week," Byers said on the official Longwood athletic website. "We need to perform well in this run of MAC games, and if we can come out 2-2 at the end of the first four games, we're still in a good position to make the tournament."
The Lancers have played three MAC teams so far, two games ahead of the majority of teams in the conference.
The Lancers currently sit at No. 4 in the standings. The top four teams earn a spot in post-season play.
Last year saw Longwood play Ball State at home as well and win 1-0. This game was one of Longwood’s two MAC wins in the 2014 season.
