FARMVILLE, Va. – Highlighted by Mid-American Conference goals leader Edel Nyland and four-year starting midfielder Ellen Ross, postseason-bound Longwood placed four players on the All-MAC field hockey team, the league announced Friday.
 
Just over 24 hours before the No. 3 seed Lancers (9-8, 3-3 MAC) open semifinal play against No. 2 seed Miami in their first MAC Championship Tournament, the conference's seven head coaches voted Nyland and Ross to the All-MAC first team and the junior duo of Lil-Sophie Achterwinter and Leonie Verstraete to the second team.
 
Those four all-conference selections have formed the backbone of a Longwood team that led the MAC with 2.82 goals game and ended the regular season with three straight wins en route to securing the program's first postseason berth in three years as a member of the MAC. Nyland and Verstraete enter the postseason as two of the league's top three goal-scorers, while Ross and Achterwinter are the fulcrum of a defensive backfield that has allowed just two goals in the past three games.
 
"As a team, we're proud of our teammates for getting this recognition," said ninth-year head coach Iain Byers, who coached his squad to a 6-3 start in 2016 that was the best of Longwood's 10-year Division I era. "All four have had a great season, and I'm sure they would be the first to thank their team for helping get them achieve these awards."
 
The All-MAC selection is the third for Nyland, a 5-5 junior in the midst of a breakout junior season in which she has scored a Longwood Division I-record 18 goals. Also an All-MAC first team selection last season, the Tipperary, Ireland, native leads the MAC with 41 points, ranks among the NCAA's top five in goals and has been responsible for three game-winning scores this season. She enters the MAC Championship on a tear of four consecutive games with a goal and has either scored or assisted on nearly half of Longwood's 48 goals this season.
 
Ross, meanwhile, is nearing the climax of a standout four-year career in which she has started every single game since stepping foot on campus as a freshman in 2013. The All-MAC award is a career first for the 5-6 midfielder and three-year team captain, who has led Longwood in minutes played for three consecutive seasons. This year, the Virginia Beach, Va., native has served as the fulcrum of Longwood's program, both on and off the field as the lead center back and lone team captain, helping the Lancers to the third-best scoring margin in the MAC.
 
"Edel and Ellen have had a great season, and I'm personally so happy for them both," Byers said. "Ellen has put together such an amazing career but has often missed out on deserved recognition. Edel has been a consistent goal-scorer all year and has helped put us in winning positions all season."
 
Achterwinter pulled in her second straight All-MAC honor, repeating last season's second-team performance with a junior campaign in which she started 15 games and totaled three assists and a pair of goals. A 5-8 junior from Dusseldorf, Germany, Achterwinter helped key the Lancer backline to a 1.61 goals against average in MAC play, contributing a pair of defensive saves and nearly 1,000 minutes of action. The Lancers were 9-6 in games she played and outshot their opponents by more than five shots per game on those 15 contests.
 
Verstraete, a sophomore forward from Utrecht, Netherlands, broke out alongside Nyland on the front line, exploding for 13 goals and six assists to finish the regular season as the league's only player to rank among the top five in both of those categories. An All-MAC choice for the first time in her two years as a Lancer, she and Nyland formed the MAC's only double-digit scoring duo and have accounted for 31 of the team's 48 goals. Verstraete has been one of the MAC's most consistent offensive threats, scoring a goal in 11 of her 17 games while also adding an assist in six of those.
 
"Lili [Achterwinter] and Lulu [Verstraete] have been key for us this season, and I'm so happy for them both," Byers said. "They have bought in to what we're trying to do as a program, as has our entire team, which is why we're in the position we're in heading into the MAC Championship."
 
Longwood's first appearance in the MAC Championship tips off at 2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4, against No. 2 seed Miami in Kent, Ohio. The matchup features a showdown of the two highest-scoring teams in the MAC, pitting the MAC goals-leading Lancers against Miami's three-headed goal-scoring trio of All-MAC first-teamer Paula Portugal (16 goals), second-teamer Geagy Pritchard (9) and MAC Player of the Year Carla Romagosa (7).
 
2016 All-MAC First Team
Mikayla Mooney, CB, Senior, Ball State
Ines Delpech, B, Junior, Kent State
Madison Thompson, M, Senior, Kent State
Alison Harmatz, F, RS Junior, Kent State
Edel Nyland, F, Junior, Longwood
Ellen Ross, M, Senior, Longwood
Carla Romagosa, M, Senior, Miami
Mariona Heras, B, Junior, Miami
Paula Portugal, F, Sophomore, Miami
Kendall Ballard, B/M, Sophomore, Ohio
Alysa Xavier, Goalkeeper, Senior, Miami
 
2016 All-MAC Second Team
Darbi Gullett, CM, Sophomore, Ball State
Maude Stalars, B, Senior, Central Michigan
Alexis Madeira, M, Senior, Kent State
Silvia Figa Malgosa, B, Junior, Kent State
Leonie Verstraete, F, Junior, Longwood
Lil-Sophie Achterwinter, D, Junior, Longwood
Geagy Pritchard, F, Senior, Miami
Liz Young, M, Senior, Missouri State
Andrea Soler Codina, M, Junior, Missouri State
Maria Russell, F, Junior, Ohio University
Andrea Rinehart, Goalkeeper, Senior, Kent State
 
MAC Freshman of the Year
Berta Jover Llorens, Kent State
 
MAC Player of the Year
Carla Romagosa, Miami
 
MAC Coach of the Year
Kathleen Wiler, Kent State

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