Photo Gallery (Facebook)FARMVILLE, Va. – Behind seven saves from
Maria Kirby and first career goals from
Jayden Metzger and
Sheyenne Stretz, Longwood dispatched visiting Big South foe Radford 2-0 Wednesday evening at the Longwood Athletics Complex.
The shutout was the Big South-leading seventh of the season for Longwood (6-5-1, 2-1-1 Big South) and the team's fourth in the past five games. It was Longwood's first win since 2010 against the Highlanders (5-8-0, 0-5-0 Big South), who have amassed a 40-20-6 Big South record during that span.
"We haven't beaten that team in five years," said Longwood head coach
Todd Dyer. "During that time, Radford won a couple conference championships, so obviously they're one of the premier programs in our league. It finally feels good to get that monkey off our back."
The win came on the strength of Kirby's Big South-leading fifth shutout of the season and the collective performance of a defensive backline that included 80-plus minute defenders
Alana Mackey,
Jessica O'Bryant,
Sydney Wallace and
Haylea Witz. That quintet survived seven shots on goal, including three inside the final 10 minutes, to give the Lancers their third shutout in four Big South games.
Longwood has now given up just two goals in Big South play, the second fewest behind only High Point, whose lone goal allowed was scored by the Lancers in a 1-0 win on Sept. 23. Since a 4-0 loss at No. 5 West Virginia on Sept. 13, Longwood has allowed just two goals over the past 475 minutes of play.
"Our goal going into every game is to not give up any shots on goal, and what we gave up tonight Kirby was there to handle," said Witz, who played her 1,000th minute of the season Wednesday in the midst of a breakout senior campaign.
"For us, it's just about communication. We've played with Kirby for two years, and Hailey [Machen] is a senior with us, so we've always been really connected. It's to the point where we don't even really need to talk to know what we're doing sometimes."
Longwood held Radford to three shots on goal for the first 80-plus minutes, but the Highlanders put Kirby to work in the closing minutes. The sophomore keeper made three saves in the final 10 minutes of the game, including a well-timed, leaping punch at the top of the net on Radford's final shot of the night.
"Defensively we earned another shutout, so that's something we can continue to build on," Dyer said. "Offensively we scored a couple good goals, so hopefully we're moving in the right direction on that side of the ball as well."
Those two goals came from the junior Metzger and the freshman Stretz, both of which were career firsts. Metzger, a defender who started at forward Wednesday, scored the game-winner just 13:30 into the opening half, fielding a pass from former Cosby High School teammate
Gina D'Orazio, streaking past a defender on the right side of the box and slipping it past Radford goalkeeper Sydney Chervenic into the lower right corner. Stretz, a freshman, followed with an insurance goal in the 28th minute, lofting a high chip shot just over the outstretched hand of a leaping Chervenic to give the Lancers a 2-0 lead.
With Metzger and Stretz both getting on the board, Longwood now has 11 goal-scorers on the year.
Wednesday's shutout gives Longwood a 4-2-1 record over the past seven games and keeps the Lancers inside the top five in the Big South standings. Longwood's next in-conference test comes this Saturday, Oct. 10, with a road matchup at Gardner-Webb at 7 p.m. That will be the first of three consecutive Big South away games, continuing Oct. 14 at Presbyterian and Oct. 17 at Charleston Southern.
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