WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Longwood University field hockey team dropped a 5-0 decision against Columbia University (1-0) of the Ivy League on Friday afternoon in a neutral site contest hosted by American University. Senior Stacey de Grandhomme/Cape Town, South Africa paced the Lancers in the outing with six shots, tying a season-high. Columbia's Katie Ruesterholz notched a pair of goals in the squad's season opener to lead the Lions. Longwood (1-2) will stay in Washington, D.C. to take on American on Sunday, September 8 beginning at 11 a.m.

"This was a tough game against an Ivy League team," said head coach Iain Byers. "We hoped we would do a lot better and we thought we could. It was one of those performances where we had the shots and definitely had opportunities where we could have scored, but we were unable to take advantage. A sloppy first half ended up costing us the game. We knew this would be a test, but we'll bounce back for our game against American on Sunday."

The Lions outshot the Lancers, 5-2, in the first 30 minutes of the game, while taking an early 3-0 advantage. Columbia got on the board less than seven minutes into play, as Danielle Cosentino slipped a shot past the Longwood defense on the left side of the cage to give her squad a 1-0 lead. Sophomore Nicole Deckard/Selinsgrove, Pa. notched the first attempt of the day for the Lancers at 13:49, but the ball skidded wide. Less than 10 minutes later, the Lions extended their margin to 2-0 when Meredith Kalberer fed a good pass to Caroline Donnal for the score. Sophomore Kim Ruiter/Huizen, the Netherlands answered with a hard shot on target for the Lancers, but goalkeeper Kimberly Pianucci batted the ball out of the circle. The Lions struck once more in the half, as Christina Freibott found Ruesterholz, who broke away down the center of the field and maneuvered past Longwood senior keeper Kaye Goulding/Tickhill, England. de Grandhomme sparked the Lancers' offense with three shots in the waning minutes of the first half, but despite taking a 5-0 shot advantage in the last five minutes of the period, Longwood went into the break facing a three-goal deficit.

Columbia earned a penalty corner just over four minutes into the second half and converted on the opportunity to pull ahead, 4-0. Lauren Skudalski assisted Zoe Blake on the goal. The Lancers, who took a 12-5 shot advantage in the half, threatened with six shots in a row, but were still unable to find the back of the cage. de Grandhomme fired a hard shot that bounced off the post, while Deckard and Ruiter both had shots saved during the span. Ruesterholtz tallied her second goal of the day at 53:04 to seal the 5-0 decision for the Lions.

Longwood outshot Columbia, 19-10, in the outing, but the Lions forced more penalty corners, 7-5. de Grandhomme put two of her team-high six shots on goal, while Deckard and Ruiter registered four and three shots apiece, respectively. Sophomore Hollie MacDonald/Yorktown notched a pair of shots in the decision, while four different Lancers added one each. Goulding recorded one save in front of the cage for Longwood before freshman Lauren Bernard/Langhorne, Pa. made her first career appearance in the final 17 minutes of the outing. Blake led the Lions with three shots.

Friday's contest marked the first-ever meeting between Longwood and Columbia in the sport of field hockey.