Butler's goals with 18:34 and 7:39 remaining capped a 3-0 second-half run for the Lancers (1-3), who rallied from a 4-2 deficit and shut out Richmond over the final 25 minutes. The win avenged a 15-3 to the Spiders last season and came against an even stronger Richmond team that was picked to finish second in the Atlantic 10.
 
"I have never been so happy, literally, in my entire life," said Butler, whose two goals extended her scoring streak to four straight games. "Last year we lost to Richmond by double digits, so this year with all our injuries we didn't know what was going to happen. In our pep talk before the game, the focus was just to play our hardest and let the end result be what it's going to be."
 
Butler made the end result turn in Longwood's favor when she scored consecutive goals in the second half to put the Lancers ahead for good. Richmond (1-3) led the entire first half and staked a 4-2 lead with 25 minutes left to play, but freshman Riley Dolan sparked the come-from-behind effort at 21:08 with her third career goal to put the Lancers back within striking distance. From there, it was all Longwood.
 
"We just reminded ourselves that if we put in the effort, we would get the results," Butler said, speaking of the catalyst to Longwood's late surge. "We just went out and put everything we needed into this game. That's how we got this win, by controlling the thing we knew we could control: effort."
 
The effort came from all 12 spots on the field, but it was Butler who punctuated the comeback with a game-tying goal at 18:34 and the go-ahead score at 7:39. Butler was quiet up to the 42nd minute without a single shot attempt, but less than three minutes after Dolan's goal she weaved through the arc and fired the equalizer past Richmond goalkeeper Emily Boyce to knot the score at 4-4.
 
Richmond stormed back after the draw, but the Spiders failed to get anything past Longwood senior goalkeeper Christian Acker. The Big South All-Preseason selection stonewalled the Spiders the rest of the way, stopping Richmond's final seven shots on goal en route to matching a career high with 15 saves.
 
With Acker and the Longwood defense holding down their third of the field, the Butler-led offense countered with their own barrage and got off three straight shots inside a two-minute span. The third of those started with a pass from senior Sarah Arndt and ended when Butler flicked it into Richmond's goal for the go-ahead score with 7:39 remaining.
 
Butler's second goal highlighted a second half in which Longwood scored on three of their four shots on goal and held advantages in ground balls (4-3), saves (8-1), fouls (3-9), clears (5-3) and turnovers (3-4). Longwood maintained that momentum after Butler's second goal and weathered a Richmond clear and two more shots that Acker handled to keep Longwood's lead intact.
 
"Christian was outstanding, along with our entire defense," Longwood head coach Elaine Jones said. "The offense was patient, playing with poise and composure, especially in running out the clock to seal the victory. The players really earned this first win and as a coaching staff, we couldn't be more proud of their performance today."
 
The Lancers will now have 10 days to prepare for their next matchup, a March 7 contest at St. Joe's in Philadelphia, Pa. Despite the upcoming layoff between games, however, Acker noted that Wednesday's win signaled a change in the team's mentality that should carry the rest of the way.
 
"I definitely think we finally figured it out, playing the entire game at 100 percent from everyone," she said. "We may have lacked that in some other games, but not today. We started out with three losses and lost a couple games that we should have won. The difference today was how bad we wanted it. You could see it from everyone."
 
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