The Longwood field hockey team fought bitterly against Kent State but lost in overtime, 3-2 on Sept. 25. The Lancers dropped to 6-4 following the loss in Farmville, Va.
Longwood came into their Mid-American Conference opener off the back of an upset win over rivals Liberty. Despite their good form, head coach Iain Byers’ side fell to an overtime winner from junior forward Shannon Talbot in the 76th minute.
“It was a tough loss,” said Byers. “We moved the ball; we stuck to our gameplan. To take a team like Kent State, who are double-MAC champions in the regular season, they’re a good team, and to take them to overtime is progress for us. Everyone on the team’s obviously disappointed that we didn’t win, but that’s because they’re a team that wants to win, and you’re super proud of that as a coach.”
“We’ve just shown how good we are this year, for sure, and this game proved that. Overtime is very unlucky, you have six people on the field, whoever gets a lucky breakaway wins the game,” added senior midfielder and team captain Ellen Ross. “It could have gone either way, I think we deserved to win, but we lost. We learned so much from this game… this is the hardest team we’ll play for the rest of the year, we’ll see them again in the MAC championships, and I can guarantee you we will beat them.”
In a tactical, defensive struggle, it was the home side that opened the scoring. Sophomore forward Leonie Verstraete converted off a penalty corner to give Longwood a 1-0 in the 29th minute, and the Lancers held that lead into halftime.
The Golden Flashes emerged brighter after the break, and in the 41st minute, junior midfielder Ines Delpech slotted home from a penalty corner to draw level. Senior forward Krysti Lober looked to have won it for Kent State in the 68th minute with a goal to make it 2-1 for the Golden Flashes.
Although registering just two shots in the second half, the Lancers equalized one minute later. With just 90 seconds remaining, Verstraete’s second goal made it 2-2 to send the game into overtime.
Longwood hoped to carry the momentum from the late leveler into the extra period, but there was no such luck against the preseason MAC favorites, as Talbot struck the game-winner five minutes into overtime. Despite the loss, Byers and his squad were pleased with the team’s performance.
“I think this shows that we can compete,” said Byers. “We took them to overtime, and it was more the manner in which we did it. It wasn’t a crushing, it wasn’t lucky, we kind of moved the ball, we did what we wanted to do, and we took our chances when we had them.”
“I don’t really think there was a difference (between the teams). I think we played a lot harder than they did. I think they came out thinking they would beat us,” said Ross. “They really underestimated us, and I think we proved ourselves.”
A visit to Washington D.C. to face Georgetown on Oct. 2 is next up for the Lancers, and Ross said she is “very confident” heading into the clash.
