October 1, 2006

BOX SCORE

Philadelphia, Pa.—The Longwood University field hockey team suffered a 2-0 setback to the Temple Owls Sunday afternoon at Geasey Field on Temple’s campus. The loss puts the Lancers at 4-7 on the season while the Owls improve to 9-3. Longwood will return to action on Sunday, October 8, as they host Pacific in a 12 p.m. NorPac match-up at the new Athletics Complex in Farmville.

Longwood came out and applied pressure to the Owls’ defense to control the flow of the game and receive four penalty corners in the opening five minutes. The two squads battled for the next thirty minutes, but the score remained 0-0 going into halftime.

Temple came out and broke the scoreless tie just two minutes into the second half, as the Longwood defense was unable to clear the ball out and Temple’s Leanne Vogelsong and Mandi Ruth teamed up for the first goal of the game. The Owls’ Mary Kinneman picked up a loose ball and made her way through the Longwood defense and fired a shot past keeper Erin West/Stafford (North Stafford) padding the lead to two with 6:10 to go in the game. The Lancers pressed the final two minutes but could not get a shot in the back of the net, having their best opportunity on a penalty corner that went just wide giving Temple the 2-0 victory.

“The first half of this game was the best field hockey we’ve played all year,” said head coach Nancy Joel. “The girls really worked hard and the leadership in the middle from Katy Lernihan really kept us in the game. The girls are playing with confidence and the development and improvement of this team is starting to show.”

West finished with seven saves in the afternoon, while her counterpart Erin Hanshue recorded two. Temple held a 12-5 advantage in shots, while Longwood had a 6-5 edge on penalty corners.