The Lancers are one win, and some help, away from finding themselves in the MAC Tournament.
The Longwood field hockey team (6-10) broke even after four games, winning two and losing two. One of those wins included an important game against, fellow Mid-American Conference (MAC) competitor, Ball State University (5-8) on Friday, Oct. 17.
Leading up to this must-have win, Longwood played against the number one ranked team in the nation, the University of North Carolina Tar Heels (UNC) (9-2) as well as Davidson College (2-12) from North Carolina, both games were at home.
Longwood suffered a tough 7-0 loss to the Tar Heels, but they learned from the experience.
“From a coach’s point of view, we learned that we’re on the right road, we’re making progress. We have a discipline in our group that can follow a game plan,” said Head Coach, Iain Byers. “From a team’s point of view, they really learned what they need[ed] to do if they want[ed] to reach those high standards.”
The shot count was 24 to 5, Longwood clearly trailing behind the Tar Heels’ attacks. It took until the 17th minute for UNC’s senior forward, Loren Shealy, to score the first of their seven goals.
“The thing with UNC...you switch off for five minutes and they’ll score three or four goals and all of a sudden you look up at the scoreboard and you’re three down and you really don’t know what happened as a team,” Byers said.
Following the fast-paced Tar Heel game, Longwood beat Davidson College 3-0 at home on Monday, Oct. 13.
While playing on their home field, Byers said the team preformed much better against Davidson and had seen more success doing the things they attempted in the UNC game.
“It was a pretty dominant performance, but it was dominant because we worked hard,” said Byers. “We put the leg work in, we made the runs, we did all we needed to be successful the whole game.”
The first goal came during the 27th minute by junior starting midfielder, Hollie MacDonald— her fifth this season.
Following MacDonald’s goal, in the second period junior forward, and captain, Jennifer Burris scored twice, once in the 40th minute, the other in the 66th, to put the nail in the Davidson’s coffin. Senior forward Jessica Diaz assisted one of Burris’s goals, her second of the season.
With Ball State following the Davidson match, Byers said this win would provide “a little more confidence for the team,” inevitably boosting team morale.
The Ball State match was a necessary win for Longwood, without it the team would not have a chance to make it to the MAC tournament. Their 1-0 victory brought their conference record to 2-3, which made them fifth in the conference. This was also field hockey’s
Senior Night and their Lancer Strong event— meaning all of the university’s athletes had come watch and support the team, creating a larger crowd to honor seniors Diaz and defender Kelley Fay.
“We knew it was going to be a tough one but with everything going on that day, it being senior day, Lancer strong, our last home game and a MAC game we were really happy with the win,” said Byers. “Having such a big crowd at the event definitely gave us energy and pride that saw us through the game.”
There were only 14 shots the whole game by either team and only three of the 14 were on target; two shots on goal were by Longwood, the other by Ball State.
The lone goal came early in the game, the 12th minute, and was scored by MacDonald and assisted by sophomore captain Ellen Ross who fed the ball in front of the net allowing MacDonald to spin around her defender and score her sixth goal of the season.
MacDonald’s goal ended up being the eventual game-winner, giving Longwood the ability to stay in competition for a spot in this years’ postseason MAC tournament.
“Our strengths that game was definitely our resilience,” said Byers. “We then showed great character to see the rest of the game out.”
Following the big win, field hockey traveled to the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) on Sunday, Oct. 19. The Lancers fell to a dominating UPenn (5-7) team, losing 5-0.
“UPenn [is] a good team and move the ball around well, we learned that we need to be able to keep the ball for longer periods of the game and not turn it over so easily,” Byers said.
Freshman forward Edel Nyland recorded the only shot on goal for Longwood, while UPenn had 18 shots, 14 of which were on goal. Three of UPenn’s goals came in the second period, two by freshman attacker Alexa Hoover.
Looking to their next game, their last MAC game before tournament play, the Lancers need another MAC win against Kent State University, on Oct. 26 in Ohio. They need to move up one more spot, into the top four, in order to make it to the postseason tournament.
The Lancers need to win this game, but they also need a lot of help from the other teams in the MAC as well, if they want to be apart of the tournament.
Longwood will work to have improved ball movement around Kent State as well as play quality field hockey, according to Byers.
“We know that it is going to be a tight game as all MAC games are but the team know the importance of the game to our season,” said Byers. “I am sure we will do the school proud with our work rate, passion and pride.”
