ONLINE TEAM GUIDE / BIG SOUTH WEEKLY RELEASE (PDF) / FEATURE STORY ON KELSEY PARDUE
LONGWOOD LIVE STATS / LONGWOOD LIVE VIDEO
UNC ASHEVILLE LIVE STATS / UNC ASHEVILLE LIVE VIDEO
FARMVILLE, Va. – Longwood continues Big South Conference action this week at home against
Campbell University on October 23 at 7 p.m. at the Athletics Complex in Farmville, before playing on the road at
UNC Asheville on Oct. 26 at 2 p.m. in North Carolina. The contest against Campbell has been designated '
Play4theCure' in partnership with the National Foundation for Cancer Research and its fundraising campaign. The Lancers have won four-straight matches, and seven of the last eight contests, while improving to 8-6-2 overall, 7-1 in the Big South after winning a pair of conference games this past week, including a 2-0 road win at Presbyterian College on Oct. 16 and a 3-1 home win past Charleston Southern University on Oct. 19.
Head Coach Todd Dyer
"We're in the home stretch now, with three games remaining, so our focus is finishing strong and doing everything we can to make sure we host a quarterfinal game that first weekend in November. That won't be easy because Campbell is a lot better than their record and they lead our overall series record. It only gets tougher after that as we head to UNC Asheville for our final road game on Saturday and they're quite possibly the most improved team in the conference this year and a difficult matchup for anyone. We'll finish the regular season at home against Liberty next week on 'Senior Night' and there will be a lot on the line that night for us. We'll be honoring a very special group of young ladies that have worked so hard for our program and it just happens to be against one of our biggest rivals and most well respected opponents, so it should be an exciting and memorable evening of soccer."
Series History
Longwood is 3-4-1 all-time against Campbell since first meeting in 2003, including a 1-0 win in North Carolina last season. The Lancers are 3-0 all-time against UNC Asheville since first meeting in 2005, including a 4-0 home win in Farmville a year ago.
Leading The Lancers / Season Statistics
Freshman
Amanda Spencer/Gibsonia, Pennsylvania continues to lead Longwood in scoring through 16 matches with her team-best eight goals and three assists totaling 19 points, though senior
Kelsey Pardue/Richmond is closing in fast with seven goals and two assists for 16 points, including seven goals and one assist in the eight Big South matches. Freshman
Gina D'Orazio/Moseley has also reached double-figure scoring with two goals and a team-best six assists for 10 points. Junior
Samantha Phillips/Chesapeake (four goals) adds eight points, and sophomore
Olivia Colella/Herndon (two goals, one assist) adds five points. Junior
Kelsey McDonald/Kennett Square, Pennsylvania (one goal, two assists) and sophomore
Alana Mackey/Leesburg (two goals) each add four points. Freshman
Christina Corbin/Glen Allen (one goal, one assist) adds three points, while junior
Rebecca Soares/Virginia Beach (one assist) and freshman
Jayden Metzger/Midlothian (one assist) each have contributed one point. Graduate student
Shelby Hall/Purcellville has played 1,468-plus minutes in front of the net, while allowing 19 goals (1.16) with 61 saves (.762) on 184 shots faced with seven shutouts. Sophomore
Hailey Machen/Fairfax has played 21-plus minutes in front of the net, while allowing two goals with two saves on four shots. Redshirt-junior
Dana Wallace/Charlottesville has played five-plus minutes in front of the net, while allowing one goal on three shots.
Defense Doing The Job
Longwood has allowed just four goals (0.49) while posting five shutouts in eight Big South contests this fall covering 735 minutes.
Shelby Hall has been ably aided by the stingy starting backline of seniors
Taylor Cave/Virginia Beach and
Chelsea Walter/South Riding, along with sophomores
Katie Beebe/Round Hill and
Meghan Magee/Virginia Beach.
Kelsey McDonald has moved to the back in recent games, as well, due to an injury suffered by Cave.
NCAA/Big South Statistics
Through Oct. 20, Longwood ranked 59th in Division I shutout percentage (.438) and 82nd in scoring offense (1.75).
Gina D'Orazio ranked 64th in Division I assists (6) and 91st in assists per game (0.38).
Amanda Spencer ranked 90th in Division I goals (8), 106th in points (19), 109th in goals per game (0.50), and 127th in points per game (1.19).
Kelsey Pardue ranked 122nd in Division I goals (7), 155th in goals per game (0.44), and 174th in points (16).
Shelby Hall ranked 137th in goals against average (1.16) and 138th in saves (61). In the Big South, Longwood is third in shots (243-15.2), fourth in shutouts (7), tied for fourth in goals (28) and goals per game (1.75), and tied for fifth in points (73-4.56). D'Orazio leads the Big South in assists and is second in assists per game. Hall is second in shutouts and shutouts per game (0.44), fourth in goals against average, sixth in saves, and ninth in save percentage and saves per game (3.81). Spencer is tied for second in goals, goals per game, points, and points per game, and tied for third in game-winning goals (3). Pardue is tied for third in game-winning goals (3), fourth in shots (57) and shots per game (3.56), tied for fourth in goals, tied for sixth in points and goals per game, and tied for ninth in points per game (1.00).
Samantha Phillips is tied for seventh in shots (37).
Success In The Big South
Longwood is 15-3-1 (.816) in 19 Big South regular season matches since becoming the league's 12th member prior to the 2012 season. The Lancers are 27-11-4 (.690) against Big South opponents since attaining its NCAA Division I certification and eligibility for 2007.
In The Record Book
Kelsey Pardue ranks second in career game-winning goals (12), assists (21) and shots (192), third in points (67) and tied for fifth in goals (23). The four-year starter has been on the field to begin 74-straight matches at Longwood.
Big South Conference Defensive Player Of The Week – x2
Shelby Hall was named the Big South Conference Defensive Player Of The Week on Sept. 3 and again on Sept. 30. She posted her first two collegiate shutouts, working extra time in each match during a pair of double-overtime decisions against Howard on August 27 and Richmond on August 30. Hall played 110 minutes with three saves during a 0-0, double-overtime tie against the Bison at home, and posted another 110-minute effort with eight saves in a 0-0, double-OT tie against the Spiders on the road. More recently, she posted her third and fourth shutouts of the season, working extra time in the 1-0, double-overtime win against Coastal Carolina on Sept. 25. Hall played 105:17 with two saves during the home win against the Chanticleers, and posted four more saves during a 3-0 road win at Winthrop on Sept. 28, against the league's top-ranked offense.
Big South Conference Attacking Player Of The Week
Amanda Spencer was named the Big South Conference Attacking Player Of The Week on Sept. 16. She posted her first collegiate hat trick with three goals against Elon at the UNCW Courtyard Marriott Wilmington Invitational on Sept. 13, including the game-winner in the 85th minute to lead the Lancers to their first win of the season. Spencer scored her first goal, unassisted, in the 15th minute against the Phoenix and notched her second goal in the 57th minute.
Kelsey Pardue assisted on the second goal, while
Jayden Metzger had the assist on the decisive goal. Spencer was also named the College Sports Madness Women's Soccer Big South Player of the Week.
Big South Network
Longwood is once again streaming live video of select home contests on the Big South Network, the official video provider for all Big South Conference games, and this year, the network's content is free of charge for all viewers. The Lancers are streaming six women's soccer home matches, including upcoming contests against Campbell (10.23, 7 p.m.) and Liberty (10.29, 7 p.m.). In addition, four Big South road games will be streamed, including at UNC Asheville (10.26, 2 p.m.). The Big South Network offers both live event streams and an archive of on-demand videos. You can watch all of the
Longwood webcasts and see a complete schedule of upcoming events by visiting
www.longwoodlancers.com or
www.bigsouthsports.com.
No Place Like Home
Longwood is 51-17-4 (.736) on its home turf at the Athletics Complex since beginning competition at the facility in 2006. The Lancers are an uncharacteristic 3-2-1 at home this season, after finishing 8-1-1 last season, and are 44-16-3 (.722) in Farmville since attaining its NCAA Division I certification and eligibility for 2007.
Recapping the Non-League Games
Longwood (No. 136 in this week's NCAA RPI) played six of eight contests away from Farmville, while working five new starters into the lineup. The Lancers opened 2013 with a 3-2 loss at North Carolina State (No. 90), as
Amanda Spencer scored two second-half goals, her second goal tying the match with just over nine minutes remaining, only to have the host Wolfpack score the game-winner with only 44-seconds on the clock. A pair of double-overtime, scoreless draws followed against Howard (No. 283) and Richmond (No. 151), the UR match also on the road. The Lancers dropped two games in Philadelphia at Saint Joseph's (No. 157, 5-1) and Drexel (No. 131, 1-0), before earning the season's first win, 4-3 against Elon (No. 85) in the UNCW Courtyard Marriott Wilmington Invitational in North Carolina behind three goals from Spencer. A 4-2 setback followed against UNC Wilmington (No. 172), before a 2-0 loss to James Madison (No. 37) at home completed the opening eight non-conference contests.
2013 Captains
Kelsey Pardue and
Chelsea Walter are serving as team captains this season, their respective first times in these important team leadership roles.
Youth Being Served
Longwood has 18 true freshmen (8) and sophomores (10) among its 27-member roster, and 15 of them have seen action this season, including eight who have made starts. The Lancers started six first or second year team members in their most recent match.
The Coaching Staff
Head coach
Todd Dyer '93 is in his 20th year leading Longwood and enters this week with a career coaching record of 214-131-24, including 15 winning seasons.
Rich Stoneman is in his first season as an assistant coach with the Lancers.
Up Next Week
Longwood will host in-state rival Liberty University on Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. at the Athletics Complex in Farmville on Senior Night to complete the regular season. The Lancers appear to be in good position to host a Big South Championship quarterfinal match on November 2 at 7 p.m. … further details to be announced late on Oct. 29.
