Box Score
FARMVILLE, Va. – The Longwood University field hockey team dropped a 3-1 decision to visiting Boston College (7-5) of the Atlantic Coast Conference on Sunday afternoon in the team's final non-conference match of the 2012 regular season. Junior captain
Stacey de Grandhomme|Cape Town, South Africa (Table View) provided the lone goal for the Lancers (2-10) in the outing. Longwood is scheduled to begin a four-game road swing at Northern Pacific Field Hockey Conference (NorPac) opponent Davidson on Friday, October 5 at 6 p.m.
“Playing against ACC teams always makes for a tough game,” said head coach
Iain Byers. “Playing well for most of the game is always a good thing. Our last two games have set us up nicely for the rest of the season in our NorPac schedule. We're really excited, and we know we're going to play well for the NorPac Tournament and for all of our league games.”
Longwood took advantage of an early penalty corner opportunity to take a 1-0 lead. Sophomore
Brittany Diaz|Chesapeake (Western Branch) inserted the ball to senior
Kaity Byrum|Suffolk (Lakeland), whose clean stick stop allowed de Grandhomme to fire a hard shot by the BC keeper for the go-ahead goal.
Boston College responded less than six minutes later to knot the game at 1-1. After the squad's first attempt was saved by freshman goalkeeper
Meg Mitchell|Allentown, Pa. (Emmaus), Chapin Duke scooped up the loose ball near the right post and sent a second shot on cage for the goal.
The eventual game-winner came with less than five minutes left in the first half, when Duke took the ball on a breakaway and earned a penalty stroke for her squad due to a collision with Mitchell. Paige Norris converted on the stroke to give BC the 2-1 lead.
Virgynia Muma scored the game's only goal of the second half to seal the 3-1 win for the Eagles when she collected the rebound after the initial shot on a penalty corner and tapped it in for the insurance goal.
The Lancers would not go quietly and with just over five minutes left in the game, they had a chance to pull within one when Diaz dribbled down the left side of the field on a breakaway and fired a hard, backhanded shot to the corner of the net, but a good save by the Eagles' keeper extinguished the opportunity. Longwood forced two penalty corners in the final minutes of the game, but could not convert, allowing BC to hold on to take the 3-1 victory.
Boston College outshot Longwood, 14-8, in the outing, and took a slight, 6-5 advantage in corner opportunities. de Grandhomme led the Lancers with four shots on the day. Sunday's match marked the second meeting ever between the Lancers and the Eagles in the sport of field hockey. BC now leads the all-time series, 2-0.
