The Longwood Lancers field hockey team's only conference loss of the season came from the Davidson College Wildcats back on Oct. 1. The Wildcats defeated the Lancers 2-1 at Davidson, N.C. On Saturday afternoon, Longwood got their revenge against Davidson in Farmville with a 3-2 victory. The Lancers did not take the lead in the game until the 69th minute when senior defender Olga Knop scored the match-winning goal off of a penalty corner. Junior midfielder Christina Verhulst and sophomore midfielder Stacey de Grandhomme scored the other two goals for the Lancers. Redshirt senior forward Lauren Sullivan assisted the first goal. Senior defender Rachel Akers inserted the penalty corner, which set up the match-winning goal, and senior midfielder Sarah Bietsch passed it to Knop for the score.
Davidson jumped on top of Longwood scoring their first goal within the first ten minutes of the game to take a 1-0 lead. This goal woke up the Lancers and Verhulst had the tying goal at 11:49. Once the game was tied 1-1, Longwood tried their hardest to take the lead with 13 shots in the first period. Longwood's aggressive offense in the first period earned them seven penalty corners. Davidson could only get off three shots and only had two penalty corners in the first period. Even though Longwood outplayed Davidson in the first period the game was tied 1-1 at the half.
In the second period, the match was evenly played and no scoring took place until the 62nd minute when Davidson reclaimed the lead. Junior forward Finley Amato received a pass from junior midfielder Annie Evans in front of the net and punched in the second goal for Davidson. It did not take long for de Grandhomme to score her team high, twelfth goal of the season with a shot from the top of the circle to tie the game at two apiece at 62:58. The last goal at 68:11 came off of the penalty corner. Longwood outshot Davidson again in the second period but only by one 6-5. Junior goalkeeper Kaye Goulding recorded three saves for the match with two of them coming in the second period. The Lancers controlled the tempo of the game, outshooting Davidson 19-8 with an 11-3 advantage in the penalty corner. Longwood improves to 4-1 in conference play and 10-8 on the season. Longwood finishes up their regular season on Saturday, Oct. 29 at home versus conference opponent Appalachian State for senior night. After that, the Lancers will travel to California to compete in the Northern Pacific Conference (NorPac) tournament which will take place Nov. 3- 5.
