Despite blustery conditions, the Longwood women’s soccer team turned in a dominant performance in a 1-0 win over Charleston Southern University on Oct. 22. The Senior Day win improved the Lancers’ record to 7-9-1 and 4-3-1 in Big South play with one game remaining in the regular season.
Facing an exhausted Buccaneers, side playing their fourth game in the span of a week, the Lancers dominated from the opening whistle, nearly breaking though just four minutes in. Sophomore midfielder Kathryn Miller’s cross was cleared off the line by the visitors, and the teams were scoreless at halftime, despite Longwood outshooting the Buccaneers 12-0.
“I thought we did a good job of dictating the action out there. Obviously I would have like to have seen us score more goals. We had a lot of the ball; we had a lot of the chances,” said head coach Todd Dyer. “My hope is that we’re saving our goals for the tournament.”
However, the hosts struck in strange fashion through junior midfielder Janese Quick, just after the break. In the 47th minute, Quick lofted in a corner kick that went beyond everyone and curled inside the post to give the Lancers a deserved 1-0 lead.
“It was a little tricky with the wind, so I knew I was going to have to play it out a little further than usual and just kind of hope for the best,” said Quick. “Everyone was on the goal line, so I was hoping someone would get something on it, but I guess they didn’t need to.”
"Somebody was yelling at me, saying 'Jayden, touch it!'," added senior defender Jayden Metzger. "It looked like it was going in, so I didn't want to touch it."
Although they peppered the Buccaneers’ goal with 26 shots, the hosts could not add to their lead. They would not need it though, as the Lancer defense was imperious, not allowing a Charleston Southern shot until the 88th minute, and denying the visitors a single attempt on target.
“The best part of our team is our defending, and give our goalkeeper and our backline credit for that,” said Dyer. “But on top of that, it’s a team effort, and we collectively commit to defend.”
“I think we gave up too many goals in the beginning of the season, but we made some adjustments,” said Metzger. “And we are finally meshing together, and we communicate well.”
The victory was the Lancers’ first on Senior Day in four years, and Metzger and Quick were both thrilled to get the win for the five seniors on the squad.
“I’m really happy because we haven’t won one Senior Night since I’ve been here,” said Metzger. “So, it feels that we were the seniors to get the W on Senior Night.”
“It was the most important part of the day,” added Quick. “Dyer emphasized it before we went out, that it’s not Senior Day without a win, so I’m glad we could do it (for them).”
The Lancers finish the regular season on Oct. 25 against Presbyterian, before a quarterfinal match in the Big South tournament on Oct. 29.
“We want to improve our seed as much as we can, so Presbyterian is just as important as today was,” said Dyer. “Beyond that, we want to be healthy, we want to be fresh, we want to be excited, we want to be playing our best soccer once we start that quarterfinal round. But our focus right now is PC (Presbyterian College).”
Junior midfielder Janese Quick bent in a corner kick to score the game winner against Charleston Southern on Saturday.
