Over the weekend, the field hockey team traveled to Stanford, Calif. to compete in the Northern Pacific (NorPac) conference tournament where they finished third. Longwood finished 5-1 in the conference during the regular season earning them the top seed in the Eastern Division. The Lancers kicked off the tournament Thursday, Nov. 3 with a quarterfinal 3-1 victory over the number four seed in the Western Division, the University of Pacific. With the victory, the Lancers advanced to the semi-finals that took place the next day, Friday, Nov. 4. The number two seed in the Western Division, the University of California, shut out Longwood 3-0.
Longwood was still not done after the loss. They faced the number two seed from the Eastern Division, Davidson College, for the third time this season. Longwood split the regular season meetings with the Wildcats, but both games were very close. The season finale was no different. Longwood won a double-overtime thriller 1-0 to lock up third place in the tournament. Two of the four goals scored in the tournament for the Lancers came courtesy of sophomore midfielder Stacey de Grandhomme. Junior goalkeeper and NorPac Eastern Division Defensive Player of the Year Kaye Goulding had 17 saves in two and a half matches. The other half and overtime was played by junior goalkeeper Amy Lewis, who had a career high nine saves.
Against the University of Pacific, the Lancers came out strong and aggressive, which resulted in a score by freshman forward Jessica Diaz at 11:04. Junior midfielder Christina Verhulst assisted the goal when she took the ball into the circle to find an open Diaz to give Longwood a 1-0 lead. Longwood kept on the attack until de Grandhomme was awarded a penalty stroke that she took full advantage of. She scored what turned out to be the match-winning goal at 32:00. Longwood took a 2-0 lead into half and was dominating the game with a 10-4 advantage in shots and 3-0 in penalty corners. Pacific came out with some life in the second period, and made the match interesting by scoring their only goal at 46:23. Finally, senior forward Alison Akers put the nail in the coffin by scoring an unassisted goal at 68:10. It was Akers' first career goal that punched the ticket to the semi-finals. Longwood outshot Pacific 17-9 and had a 9-5 advantage in penalty corners. Goulding played the whole 70 minutes and finished with four saves.
In the semi-finals, the Lancers took on the University of California, but the Golden Bears crushed the momentum of the four-game winning streak with a 3-0 final score. The Golden bears were ranked 16th in the nation going into this game and proved to be one of the top teams in the country. The Lancers' defense, anchored by Goudling with 11 saves, kept the game close. Going into halftime, Longwood was only down 1-0 and had some signs of life when de Grandhomme had a pair of shots on goal. Longwood had some opportunities when senior defender Olga Knop had a pair of shots off of penalty corners, but couldn't push the ball through. California outshot Longwood 19-8 and had a 5-4 advantage in the penalty corners.
Longwood ended the tournament and its season on a high note with a victory over conference division foe Davidson College. The Lancers came out firing as they took 18 shots in the first half. Meanwhile, Davidson only took 18 the entire game including both overtimes. Davidson's defense held strong and had 11 first half saves that kept the match scoreless at halftime. In the second half, Longwood switched goalies from Goulding to Lewis, who came up big for the Lancers, defending against an aggressive Wildcats offense. Davidson actually outshot Longwood 9-6 in the second half, but Lewis' six saves and freshman midfielder Charlotte de Waegeneer's save made sure the game went into overtime.
In the first overtime, Lewis had a save against a penalty stroke to keep Longwood alive. It took until the second overtime in the 88:36 minute for de Grandhomme to push in the match-winning goal. The goal was assisted by senior defender Rachel Akers. Longwood outshout Davidson 26-18 and had an 8-6 advantage in penalty corners. Longwood finished the season 13-9, which is the most wins field hockey has had since the 2000 season, when they finished 15-5.
