By any measure, last season was nothing short of historic for the Longwood women’s soccer team. Their loss in the Big South championship game to the High Point Panthers wasn’t how they expected to conclude their season by any means, but their monumental performance over the course of the year etched their way into Longwood history.
As if reaching their first Big South championship wasn’t enough, two Lancers made it on SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays and four collected Big South major awards – a record for most awards by a single team in conference history. Although losing in the conference title stung, 2017 was far from disappointing.
Now, if it wasn’t clear enough already, head coach and reigning Big South Coach of the Year Todd Dyer and his Lancers are no longer underdogs in the Big South. Rather, he has firmly established the program into a conference powerhouse and a legitimate championship contender.
“We’ve never won a regular season championship, and we’ve never won a conference tournament, so those are two things that we are absolutely shooting for,” Dyer said. “But we know that those are just byproducts of your culture and training habits.”
Dyer, a Longwood men’s soccer alum, has consistently produced winning seasons year after year since founding the program in 1993. Celebrating the program’s 25th anniversary this season, Dyer enters the year on a mission to hoist his first-ever trophy.
The veteran head coach bolstered his roster this off-season by adding six freshmen and one transfer student to a Lancer lineup which includes 20 returning players, eight of which served as starters last fall.
Notable players returning to the field this season are senior defender and reigning Big South Defensive Player of the Year Sydney Wallace and senior forward Kathryn Miller who will be serving as team captains. Wallace and Miller represent two of seven seniors on the roster, all of whom will be facing an adjustment to new roles, according to Dyer.
“All of (the seniors) will have roles within our system, but some of them are new roles,” Dyer said. “The veteran players have the same challenge as a lot of the newer players do of fitting into that new role or position.”
With the off-season and pre-season in the rear-view mirror, Dyer shifts his focus to identifying systems to fit the talent on his roster.
“We’ve never been stuck in a system. We try to identify the talent we have and come up with a system that suits that talent,” Dyer said. “We’re just trying to figure out the personality of this new team, what systems and style of play best suits us this year.”
The Lancers kicked off their new season Aug. 17 against the UNC Charlotte, losing in overtime 1-0. They rebounded two days later with a commanding 4-0 win at home against the Richmond Spiders, all leading up to their match at American University on Thursday Aug. 23.
Freshman Jordan Horacek practices her blocking skills as Associate Head Coach Rich Stoneman told her to dive for the ball.
The women’s soccer team practices two touch drills.
Dyer instructs the women's soccer team about the layout of the practice.
Dyer overlooks the two touch drill and gives pointers about their techniques.
