Box Score

FARMVILLE, Va. - Longwood finally found the golden touch in the circle as the Lancers got two second-half goals from senior Jessica Diaz to pull away from Missouri State Thursday afternoon at the Athletics Complex.

It wasn't always easy nor pretty for Longwood (3-4,1-2), but in the end, the blue and white are happy to walk away with their first-ever Mid-American Conference win.

"It's good to get our first win in the MAC," said head coach Iain Byers. "Missouri State is a good team and we made it a little bit difficult for ourselves at times, particularly in the first half coming out a bit slow again. So, we're going to have to work on that. We're happy to come away with a win, particularly a 4-1 win. I don't think it necessarily reflects the game as it should, but we're happy with it."

The slow starts have become troublesome for Longwood and today was no different. The Lancers struggled to control the ball early in the first half and Missouri State (2-4,0-1) took advantage. The Bears capitalized at the 19:27 mark when Daelynn DeMello scored her third goal of the season to stake a 1-0 lead.

Still, Longwood had trouble controlling play and settling into the game as the Bears continued to put pressure on the Lancers' defense. All told, Longwood was outshot 4-2 in the first half.

While the Lancers were not playing up to their standards, Longwood found the break it needed when freshman Edel Nyland broke into the circle just 3 minutes prior to halftime. Nyland split a pair of defenders and sent a rocket whistling from the top of the circle to beat the Bears' keeper top-shelf.

The second half began much like its earlier counterpart with each team struggling to find a rhythm. It would take 15 minutes before Longwood was finally able to break through and take its first lead of the day and steal the momentum.

A long pass forward found junior Jennifer Burris outside the left edge of the circle with Diaz streaking toward the penalty spot. Burris picked her head up and alertly found Diaz all alone in the middle; Diaz turned and fired a shot low to beat Megan Drew. The goal gave Longwood a 2-1 lead and the Lancers never looked back.

Just 2 minutes later, Burris rifled the ball in from outside the circle. Redshirt-sophomore Rachel Lombardi was waiting and tipped the ball high into the upper-left corner for her first goal of the season. The tally pushed the Longwood advantage to 3-1, but the Lancers were not done.

The blue and white would cap it off with a second goal from Diaz. This time it started with Edel Nyland sending the ball into the circle from 20 yards out. Missouri State's keeper charged the ball and attempted to kick it away, but only got a piece of it, sending the ball straight to Diaz, who delivered it to the empty cage.

With the victory, Longwood improves to 3-4 on the season and 1-2 in conference play. Despite the 4-1 score line, the blue and white still sees room for major improvement.

"This definitely was not the way we wanted to play or expected to play," said sophomore co-captain Ellen Ross. "We're happy that we finally got our first MAC win. We know we can do better and we know we have to play our best from the very start. We cannot fall behind at first because that's the type of team we are; we can't let off at all, we have to play 100-percent all the time. We know that's not going to happen again and hopefully, our next three games being out-of-conference, we can go out and win all three."

Longwood travels to Washington, D.C. Saturday to challenge the Georgetown Hoyas. The Lancers and Hoyas met in an exhibition last season with Longwood claiming a 3-0 victory. Game time is set for 6 p.m.