Heading into Saturday’s NorPac opener, the LU field hockey team was 1-4 and outscored 21-6. That all changed over the weekend as the Lancers secured a crucial 8-1 win over Appalachian State in Farmville.
Jessica Diaz opened the scoring just 1:26 in, advancing on Mountaineer keeper Sarah Anderson and firing a slapshot above her head. Jennifer Burris scored on a breakaway with 10:18 to go in the first half to double the Lancers’ lead, and it remained 2-0 at halftime.
“It was good to be effective on both sides of the ball,” Head Coach Iain Byers said. “The forward line has needed some reward; they’ve been putting in some more effort these last couple of games and was good to get different scorers on the score sheet.
“Lindsey Lysher getting her first goal was good, Jen to get a couple, Hollie [MacDonald] to get a couple, Stacey [de Grandhomme] … From that point of view, it was a good performance for us.”
Byers has described his side as a second half team, and that appraisal seemed accurate during Saturday’s game. LU turned it on in the second half, scoring six goals in 27 minutes.
“We want to be a wholegame team, but we definitely performed better in the second half. We made a couple of tactical changes [to] move the ball around a little quicker and try to make use of some of the things that they [App State] were doing poorly.
“When we got to four or five, it kind of just snowballed from there. It was nice that we didn’t ease off; sometimes we can ease off and not continue to push on so it was good that we did that.”
ASU’s lone marker came with 21:23 to go when Caroline Phillips put her own rebound past a diving Kaye Goulding. All told, Burris, MacDonald and de Grandhomme each scored twice. Lysher and Diaz scored once each. LU outshot App State 21-8, including 13-6 in their second half onslaught.
This weekend’s win came over a 4-2 loss to James Madison last Wednesday. Longwood won the second half 2-0 over the Dukes, but that wasn’t enough to make up for JMU’s four-goal first.
When asked what adjustments have to be made, Byers replied, “Being more aggressive in the first half is one of the things that’s helped us. It’s a mindset thing for the team. We have to kind of approach games in a better mindset, and we will.
“We’re getting better; one thing we have to remember is that we have 16 underclassmen… we’re still a pretty young team, so it’s down to the underclassmen stepping up and bringing something more than their skills, which they do at times. But, when we all do it, we’re really very good. From a future point of view for the team, we’re very strong.”
In the first two minutes, Jessica Diaz (3) used skilled stick work and scored to give the Lancers 1-0 lead.
