November 3, 2010

Tournament Central

FARMVILLE, Va. - The Longwood University field hockey team looks to extend its season-best three match winning streak at the 2010 Northern Pacific Field Hockey (NorPac) Tournament in Davidson, North Carolina. All eight NorPac teams are represented and will square off in four cross-divisional matches in the quarterfinals. The Lancers (6-12, 4-2 NorPac) earned the #2 seed in the East Division and will face off against UC Davis, the #3 seed in the West Division on Thursday, November 4, at 11 a.m. on the Belk Turf Field on the campus of Davidson College. If Longwood wins in the opening match of the tournament against UC Davis, it will face the winner of West #1 seed Stanford vs. East #4 seed Appalachian State on Friday, Nov. 5, at 1:30 p.m. in the semifinals. The championship match is set for Saturday, Nov. 6, at 1:30 p.m..

"The NorPac Tournament is a great opportunity to play for the NCAA Tournament," said third-year head coach Iain Byers. "We've been the #2 seed in the East before, so we know what to expect. UC Davis is a strong team, we're going to have to really focus on the game. If we play our best, we know we can do well in this tournament."

Longwood posted a 4-2 record in NorPac play, splitting matches with East #1 seed Davidson and East #3 Radford and sweeping East #4 Appalachian State. The Lancers have won three-straight NorPac matches, defeating Radford 5-1 on the road before topping Davidson 3-1 and Appalachian State 2-0 at home. The Lancers are led by senior Lauren van de Kamp | Midlothian (Trinity Episcopal) with 23 points. She is tied for the team lead with nine goals and five assists. Freshman Stacey de Grandhomme | Cape Town, South Africa (Table View) has scored nine goals in just 12 appearances after sitting out the first six matches while senior Lauren Sullivan | Fredericksburg (Stafford) has added seven goals.

UC Davis (6-9, 2-4 NorPac) is coming off a 4-3 penalty stroke victory over Pacific that completed the season sweep of the Tigers and clinched the #3 seed for the Aggies. UC Davis was swept by Stanford and California in other conference matches. Nadia Namdari leads the second-year program with seven goals and 17 points.

Stanford (11-5, 5-1 NorPac) is the three-time defending NorPac Tournament champion and has won two matches in a row. The Cardinal split a pair of matches against California and swept Pacific and UC Davis. Stanford is led by Becky Dru with eight goals and six assists for 22 points. The Lancers are 1-5 against the Cardinal.

Appalachian State (5-11, 1-5 NorPac) is riding a seven-match losing streak. The Mountaineers split with Radford and dropped a pair of matches to Davidson and Longwood. ASU is led by Lisa Charney with seven goals and one assist for 15 points. The Lancers are 8-0 against the Mountaineers since 2007 and 19-5 overall.

Longwood is playing in the NorPac Tournament for the fourth time and has posted a 3-5 record. Last season, Longwood defeated Pacific 3-1 in the quarterfinals before falling to Stanford 6-1 in the semifinals and Radford 3-2 in the third-place match. The Lancers' best finish was in 2008 when they defeated Radford 3-0 in the quarterfinals before falling to California 5-1 in the semifinals. Longwood rebounded to defeat Pacific 3-1 in the third-place match.