After a five game stretch of road contests, the Longwood women’s soccer returned home for two conference games versus defending Big South champion High Point and No. 3 Big South Preseason pick Coastal Carolina.
A second-half goal from senior midfielder Bridget Bergquist was enough as sophomore goalkeeper Maria Kirby posted her second consecutive shutout in 1-0 victory to open Big South conference play against the High Point Panthers (5-2-3, 0-1) Wednesday night.
“We were prepared because we knew that we had to get this win,” said Bergquist. “We were pumped, ready to play, and we started off strong and finished it strong.”
The shutout was Kirby’s third of the season and her fourth overall. It was also Longwood’s fifth clean sheet of the season, all five wins coming in that fashion.
“We knew that in order to be a champion, we have to beat the champion. That’s what we came in saying,” said Bergquist.
The Lancers were able to lock down even tighter defensively after Bergquist’s goal as they only allowed two more shots in the last 30 minutes of action.
“High Point is traditionally one of the elite programs in our conference, so anytime you can get a result against them you're doing something that's not easy to do,” said head coach Todd Dyer. “Defensively we had some scary moments, but in the end we were good enough to earn a shutout.”
“Bridget had her big moment, which is long overdue, and she certainly deserves a goal that was the difference in the game for us,” Dyer continued.
The Lancers were able to send nine shots, six on goal, compared to High Point’s five.
“It was a great battle between both teams. The win wasn’t just from my goal,” said Bergquist. “We had a great team effort, we had a shutout the whole game (1-0), so that’s really important for our team leading into the conference play.”
The Lancers had little time to celebrate as another top-tier Big South opponent in the form of Coastal Carolina came knocking Saturday afternoon.
Junior defender Amber Adams found the back of the net five minutes into overtime to give the Chanticleers (6-4-0, 2-0) a 2-1 victory and spoil the Lancers bid for three consecutive wins.
The Lancers jumped out to a 1-0 lead behind senior midfielder Olivia Colella’s goal just 32 seconds into the second half. Junior forward Gina D’Orazio, who has back-to-back contests with an assist, set up Colella’s go-ahead goal.
The lead only stood for 13 minutes as junior midfielder Ellie Taylor was able to find freshman defender Jenna Surdick off a corner kick for her first career goal tying it at 1-1.
Junior goalie Becca Austin was able to save seven of the Lancers’ shots, sending the game into golden goal overtime, which allowed the Chanticleer offense to rise up and complete the second half comeback
"That's a tough loss to swallow," said Longwood head coach Todd Dyer on the official Longwood athletics website. "We did a lot of good things on the day, but in some of the critical moments we weren't as sharp as we needed to be.”
The loss was only the third time that an opponent scored multiple goals in their 10 contests to this point. It also snapped a streak of back-to-back clean sheets from the Lancer defense.
“We have to learn from this, and we have to be mentally stronger, especially late in games. We have to find a way to win games when we create those opportunities for ourselves. This will make us better, but only if we use what we learned and apply it," said Dyer on the Longwood athletics website.0
The Lancers hit the road yet again on Wednesday, Sept. 30 to take on Winthrop (4-4-1, 1-1) followed by one last nonconference matchup against the Francis Marion Patriots (2-11) on Saturday, Oct. 3.
