A corner kick in the opening minutes ended up being just enough for the visiting Liberty Flames to knock off the Longwood women’s soccer team on Tuesday’s senior night.
Sophomore forward Baylee Gilmore was able to head in the corner kick from senior midfielder Brittany Aanderud in the 48th minute for the 1-0 lead that would go on to stand as the final. That would be all redshirt junior goalie Holly Van Noord would need as she knocked away almost every single attempt from the Lancers in the second half to secure the No. 1 seed in the Big South Tournament.
“With all the different things that happened in the game and statistics, it all came down to them converting on their corner kick and we came just as close,” said women’s soccer head coach Todd Dyer.
Dyer added, “Moving forward though, we don’t want to put ourselves in a position where we have to defend so much and absorb so much pressure and face 21 shots. It’s just hard to win soccer games that way so we have got to figure out a way to push them back.”
Longwood had an opportunity to grab the lead in the later stages of the first half and steal any momentum that the Flames had built up.
With just under two minutes left in the half, senior captain midfielder Meghan Magee came within inches of sending a corner kick into the back of the net, but Van Noord got a hand on it at the last moment to keep the game at a scoreless tie.
“We all thought it was in, we were all celebrating on the sideline,” said Dyer. “Their keeper made a great save.”
Dyer added, “I thought that was encouraging for us. We had the last really good chance of the half, so we were really excited to come back here in the second half.”
Sophomore goalkeeper Maria Kirby held her own as she faced 21 shots and racked up five saves out of the six that were on goal.
Coming into the game, the Lancers were sitting at fifth place in the Big South standings with many scenarios that could have played out across the league. A win and some help in other games would have put the Lancers as high as the No. 2 seed in the tournament and given them a home contest in the quarterfinals that start this weekend.
A win would have guaranteed a top four finish and a home game no matter the outcome of the other games.
With the loss, the Lancers finish outside the top four, as the No. 5 seed and will travel to High Point on Saturday night for a matchup with the No. 4 seed Panthers.
In the regular season matchup, the Lancers were able to shut down the defending Big South Champion Panthers in Farmville, Virginia for a 1-0 win back on Sept. 23. This time, the Lancers will have to go on the road to keep their season alive.
“Anything can happen, it’s one 90-minute game and we’ll go there just trying to fight for every minute and see what happens at the end of it,” said Dyer. “Hopefully we’ve got a trick for them and a treat for us.”
