The Longwood women’s soccer team has been impressive on the road so far this season with a perfect 3-0 record; with eight straight road wins feeding into last season.
After two very impressive outings against Saint Francis and Howard last week, with an
impressive performance from sophomore midfielder Amanda Spencer and a shutout win from junior goalkeeper Hailey Machen.
The Lancers were looking to go into downtown Richmond and make a statement to the Big South Conference. However, Sunday was a different story as the Lancers lost 4-1 to Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), a talented squad, on the road.
Going against a strong team like VCU, Head Coach Todd Dyer wanted to make sure the team was fresh throughout the entire game with a steady rotation of his players.
“Going into VCU, we decided that none of our field players would play a full 90 minutes,” said Dyer. “Our depth and rotation players helped us in the first half and Alex [Askew] scored a great
goal to give us the lead.”
After the strong start in the first half, the Rams responded with four goals and outplayed the Lancers in an one-sided affair in the second half.
“It got away from us when we stopped pressuring the ball, got beat in the air on most 50-50 challenges and we started playing backwards when we should have been going forward. In a nutshell, when we stopped doing the things in the second half that helped us in the first, it blew up in our face,” said Dyer.
But not everything about the game was bad. Coach Dyer believes that there were a few positives to take away from the loss, “When we stuck to the plan, it worked and we won the first half 1-0.”
With this loss, the Lancers will fall to a 4-3-1 record. However, the strong play of senior midfielder Samantha Phillips, freshman forward Teresa Fruchterman and the consistent play of Machen gives the team, coaches and fans a whole lot to be excited about.
The Lancers will be travelling to Conway, South Carolina to face off against Coastal Carolina (3-5-1) on Wednesday, Sept. 24 for a Big South rivalry matchup; which could be a good thing, considering the Lancers’ strong play on the road thus far this year.
“Coastal is our only thought right now,” said Dyer. “We have no choice but to rebound and I’m sure our team will respond in time for Coastal.”
The team is hungry for a win and they look to do just that against another talented squad.
Though the Chanticleers are a strong opponent, they are coming off a very tough stretch of
games.
After a four-game losing streak, including a 7-0 blowout loss at UNC Wilmington, the
Chanticleers tied with Georgia Southern in a 2-2 battle on Friday.
Regardless of Coastal Carolina’s recent struggles, the Lancers cannot afford to overlook this team on their home field.
The game against Coastal Carolina starts at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 24. You can keep track of the game by watching the live stats at longwoodlancers.com
