The LU field hockey team was in Washington, D.C. this weekend for a pair of matches and came away with little to show for it after two blowouts to first Columbia and then American.
Friday afternoon against Columbia, the Lancers surrendered three goals in the first half hour of play, the first occurring just under seven minutes in. Danielle Cosentino put a shot in the left side of the cage past Longwood keeper Kaye Goulding. Later, Caroline Donnal converted a Meredith Kalberer pass in front. With five minutes to go in the half, Katie Ruesterholz made it 3-0 and the rout was on from there. Zoe Blake scored 4:19 into the half to make it 4-0 and Ruesterholz finished it at 53:04, prompting Longwood Head Coach Iain Byers to pull Goulding in favor of freshman Lauren Bernard.
“This was a tough game against an Ivy League team. We hoped we would do a lot better, and we thought we could. It was one of those performances where we had the shots and definitely had opportunities where we could have scored, but we were unable to take advantage,” Byers said to LongwoodLancers.com afterward.
“A sloppy first half ended up costing us the game,” he added. It didn’t get better two days later against American, the hosts of the weekend set. Sophomore Nicole Deckard scored her first Longwood goal, the lone bright spot on an afternoon that ended with a 7-1 defeat at the Eagles’ hands. Shelly Montgomery scored for American on a breakaway eight minutes in before Meghan O’Connor supplied Deckard with the ball, who equalized 26:49 in. Seven minutes later, Isabel Terwindt scored off a rebound to give her side the lead back with 1:11 to play in the first. Over a 13-minute stretch near the start of the second, American took it to the visitors with an onslaught of five goals. Alex McMackin scored her first of the day 4:08 into the half to make it 3-1. Natalie Konerth bounced one over Goulding at 45:11, and Grace Parke scored via a Victoria De Kepper cross 47 seconds later. McMackin scored her second off a penalty corner at 50:50, and Carly Atchison tallied off a penalty corner herself to make it 7-1 moments later.
“American is a strong team, and we had a very strong first half performance. They made some adjustments that we couldn't deal with, and it fell away from us in the second half. We always knew it would be a tough weekend, and we've learned a lot of lessons from it. Unfortunately, we came away with two losses, but it'll make us better for the future and for our NorPac games,” Byers said.
The Dukes of James Madison come to town tonight for a rivalry game at the Athletics Complex that starts at 5 p.m. Appalachian State visits Farmville on Saturday at noon for Longwood’s first NorPac game of the season.
