Box Score
BOONE, N.C. – The Longwood University field hockey team defeated Northern Pacific Field Hockey Conference (NorPac) foe Appalachian State University (2-10, 0-4) on Sunday afternoon in Boone, N.C. Five Lancers (3-11, 2-1) registered one goal for two points in the outing. Longwood will return to action on Sunday, October 14 when the squad travels to NorPac member Radford University for its third of four-straight road games beginning at 2 p.m.
Senior
Christina Verhulst|Yorktown (Grafton), junior
Stacey de Grandhomme|Cape Town, South Africa (Table View) and sophomore
Jessica Diaz|Chesapeake (Western Branch), along with freshmen
Hollie MacDonald|Yorktown (Tabb) and
Kim Ruiter|Huizen, The Netherlands (Luzac College) each tallied one goal on the day to help lead Longwood to victory. Freshman
Jennifer Burris|Viginia Beach (Kempsville) also registered two points with a pair of assists, while freshman
Brylee Despinis|Newport News (Denbigh) added an assist of her own in the win. Freshman goalkeeper
Meg Mitchell|Allentown, Pa. (Emmaus) made two saves in the complete game performance.
The Lancers took an early lead just over 11 minutes into the game, when Diaz dribbled into the circle alone and fired a hard shot past the Mountaineers' keeper to put LU up, 1-0. Less than 10 minutes later, de Grandhomme extended Longwood's lead to 2-0 with a direct penalty corner goal assisted by Burris and Despinis.
Appalachian State was able to get on the board with just over 10 minutes left in the first half by converting on a corner opportunity of its own, as Casey Lammando fed Lindsay Amador for the goal, making it a one-goal game.
Diaz dished a pass across the circle to Verhulst, who redirected it on cage to regain the two-goal buffer for Longwood, before Lammando scored goal of her own, once again on a penalty corner, pulling the Mountaineers within one, down just 3-2.
It would not stay a one-goal game for long, as MacDonald fired off a shot from the top of the circle that skidded past the opposition to give the Lancers a 4-2 advantage with less than a minute remaining in the first half, a lead that the team would take into halftime.
Coming out of the break, the squad battled back and forth through over 13 minutes of scoreless action before Lammando tallied her second goal of the day on a scramble in front of the cage for the Mountaineers and Ruiter scored on a corner play for the Lancers to make it a 5-3 Lancers' lead with less than 22 minutes left in the game.
ASU would score the final goal of the contest with less than eight minutes to play when Lammando tipped in a pass from Dana Wetmore to complete her hat trick, but it was not enough to overcome the deficit, allowing Longwood to earn the 5-4 conference victory.
Sunday's contest marked the 27th meeting between Longwood and Appalachian State in the sport of field hockey. The Lancers now hold a 22-5 advantage in the all-time series.
