4.27.2011

Tournament Central

FARMVILLE, Va. – The Longwood University women's lacrosse team will be competing in the 2011 National Lacrosse Conference (NLC) Tournament April 29-May 1 on the campus of Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina. All eight NLC teams are represented and will square off in four quarterfinal games on Friday. The Lancers enter the conference postseason as the No. 3 seed and will face No. 6 Detroit-Mercy on Friday, April 29, at 7 p.m. at Richardson Stadium. If Longwood wins its opening game against the Titans, it will face the winner of the #2 seed High Point vs. #7 Presbyterian College on Saturday, April 30, at 2 p.m. in the semifinals. The championship contest is set for Sunday, May 1, at 12 p.m.

The Lancers earned a 9-7 overall record and a 5-2 mark in league action, winning their most-recent conference game at Liberty 18-10, which snapped a four-game losing streak and concluded regular season play. The squad is led by senior Cara O'Brien|Arlington (Bishop O'Connell) who is fourth in the league with 55 total points (3.44 per game) on 45 goals (t-3rd, 2.81) and 10 assists (t-9, 0.62). She is also second in the NLC during conference-only games, scoring 22 goals. With 15 assists on the season, senior captain Kesley Dean|Centreville, Md. (Queen Anne's) sits in fourth place in the loop in that category, as well as in assists per game (0.94).

Also making her mark on the NLC leader board is senior captain Juli Liebig|Centreville, Md. (Queen Anne's), having collected a conference-high 52 ground balls, which also ranks seventh in the latest national rankings. The goalkeeper sits first in ground balls per game (3.25) as well. Furthermore, Liebig's .482 save percentage tops the league standings, and her goals against average (10.53) is third best. Freshman Mary Barondess|Centreville (Westfield) holds conference highs in draw controls both for all games (70, 4.38) and conference-only games (33, 4.71). Those numbers also rank sixth-best nationally. For all games, senior captain Duan Wright|Church Hill, Md. (Queen Anne's) is second in the loop with 28 caused turnovers (1.87) but holds the top spot for caused turnovers per game (2.33) in conference-only contests.

Detroit earned the sixth seed entering postseason play after recording a 3-13 overall record and a 2-5 mark in the NLC. The Titans are led by junior Emily Boissonneault who is the top goal scorer in the conference with 53. She was second overall in points (58) and led the league in caused turnovers (37) while collecting the second-most ground balls (48).    

The Lancers topped Detroit on March 27 by a score of 20-4, proving to be the fewest goals allowed by Longwood all season.

Those fans unable to attend the tournament may purchase a video package through the Davidson Athletics page (davidsoncollege.com/showcase/#livevents) on a per-game basis at a cost of $5.95 or an entire tournament package that will stream all games at the price of $19.95. LiveStats are also available free of charge at the following link: http://sidearmstats.com/davidson/wlax/index.htm.