Box Score

FARMVILLE, Va. – The Longwood University field hockey team suffered a 5-3 loss to Temple University after a five-goal, second-half surge by the Owls (6-5) on Friday evening in Farmville. Junior Stacey de Grandhomme|Cape Town, South Africa (Table View) led the Lancers (2-9) with three points in the outing. Longwood will play another home contest this weekend, as the squad welcomes Boston College of the Atlantic Coast Conference on Sunday, September 30 for a 1 p.m. tilt.

de Grandhomme tallied one goal and one assist in the match. Senior Nicole Segala|Williamsburg (Jamestown) scored her first career goal and sophomore Jessica Diaz|Chesapeake (Western Branch) recorded a goal of her own to add to the offensive effort.

“This was a classic game of two halves,” said head coach Iain Byers. “Our first half was strong and combative. We came out, we followed our game plan, we structured the ball and moved it around well. We structured the field and were able to get a good-looking goal. We felt very comfortable and confident in the first half, and then the second half was some of the same, but not as consistent.

“We let the result slide away from us through some poor decision making on our part and some switching off, and we're disappointed with the outcome. We know that the game was ours for the taking. We've had too many of those this year and we are going to do our best to make sure we don't have another.”

Longwood controlled the pace of play early, outshooting Temple 7-1 in the first half. The Lancers had a chance to break the game open when a pass from the right side of the circle found senior Christina Verhulst|Yorktown (Grafton) posted up in front of the cage, but her sweeping shot sailed just high. Longwood quickly recovered and on the next time down the field, Diaz scooped up the ball in a scramble and sent a shot skidding into the back corner of the cage to put the Lancers up, 1-0, with less than 15 minutes remaining in the half.

LU maintained the momentum throughout the rest of the first half, taking its one-goal advantage into the break. Less than three minutes into the second half, the Owls got on the board, as they were awarded a penalty stroke and Nicole Kroener converted on the opportunity to knot the game at 1-1.

The Lancers quickly regained the lead on a successful penalty corner less than two minutes later. De Grandhomme received the inserted ball at the top of the circle and dished a solid pass to Segala, who fired a hard shot that found its way through the defense and into the cage to make it a 2-1 game with 30 minutes to play.

After over 10 minutes of scoreless action, Longwood converted on another corner opportunity to take a 3-1 lead. When an initial shot attempt was blocked, de Grandhomme took control of the loose ball and put a shot on goal, finding the back of the cage unassisted.

In the last 14 minutes of the game, Temple scored four unanswered goals to earn the comeback victory. Alyssa Delp tallied two consecutive goals less than three minutes apart to tie the game at three. The go-ahead goal came when the ball was fed into the circle and Katie Briglia got a stick on it to redirect the ball on goal. Amber Youtz sealed the 5-3 victory for Temple when she made a move past a diving freshman goalkeeper Meg Mitchell|Allentown (Emmaus) to shoot and score on an open cage.

Longwood outshot Temple by a slim, 10-9 margin, while the Owls forced more penalty corners, 6-5. Friday's match marked the third meeting ever between the Lancers and the Owls in the sport of field hockey. Temple now leads the all-time series, 3-0.