FARMVILLE, Va. – Led by sophomore Madison Stair's career-high tying six goals, Longwood's scoring trio consisting of Stair, and seniors Sarah Butler and Katie McHugh netted a combined 15 as Longwood women's lacrosse ousted Gardner-Webb, 22-8, Saturday at the Athletics Complex.
 
After missing the trio's last outing due to illness, Stair made up for the missed time by leading the Longwood (6-5, 2-0 BSC) attack with her second six-goal performance of the season while adding one assist to finish with seven points. In addition to the six goals from Stair, McHugh scored five and Butler added four to help the Lancers to a 2-0 start to Big South play.
 
"As a team we all just really wanted to win," said Stair. "Coming out today, I was going to play as hard as I could to help us do that. Also, Sarah Butler, as well as for Katie McHugh, were there with the assists to set me up during the game. I couldn't have gotten as many shots if it wasn't for their help."
 
Along with their scoring efforts, McHugh and Butler each tallied a game-high six assists and Stair added one as the trio combined for 13 assists. Overall, Longwood's three outstanding offensive players either assisted or found the net in 20 of the team's goals in the game.
 
"We all work very well together," Stair said. "We know each other's tendencies very well, which helps us know where to pass the ball to each other. Also, we know each other's strengths when it comes to shooting the ball so we can set each other up for goals."
 
A product of Burke, Va., McHugh finished the game with a team-high 11 points after posting five goals and six assists. The 11-point effort pushed McHugh into second place on Longwood's all-time points list in program history with 239 total points.
 
"It's awesome that Katie has reached such a great milestone in her career," said Longwood head coach Elaine Jones. "She's definitely earned it and I'm proud of her for her dedication and for reaching this achievement."
 
While McHugh felt pleased to reach this individual milestone, she gave credit to her coach and teammates for helping her post the second highest points total by any Longwood women's lacrosse player in her four years in the blue and white.
 
"I couldn't have accomplished this without my teammates and coaches helping me since I was a freshman," said McHugh, who is now 27 points shy of the all-time points record at Longwood. "My past and present teammates have been a huge help. Coach Jones has helped me grow into becoming the player I am today. I couldn't be happier to have accomplished this, but I couldn't have done it without any of my coaches or teammates."
 
The Lancers led wire-to-wire after opening up the game with an 8-1 lead behind a hat trick by Stair and pair of goals by Butler in the first 11 minutes of action. Butler's first pair of goals came after McHugh connected with her senior counterpart on each while Stair converted a free position shot and scored an unassisted goal in less than 30 seconds to go along with her first goal at the 3-minute mark, which was also set up by McHugh.
 
In response to the Longwood scoring run, Gardner-Webb pulled to within six after freshman midfielder Emma Rufolo found the net with 17:43 to go in the first half.
 
After seeing the lead cut to its lowest of the afternoon, McHugh recorded a hat trick of her own to spark a Longwood scoring surge that included seven Lancer goals in the final 13 minutes of the first half.
 
During that stretch, Stair found the net upon being assisted by Butler at the 18-minute point and again five minutes later to give the sophomore five in the period. Following Stair's fifth score of the afternoon, Butler added her third after McHugh once again connected with the senior with 4:41 left in the period to give the Lancers a 15-5 lead.
 
In spite of falling behind by 10, the Runnin' Bulldogs mustered up enough fight to bring themselves back to within single digits with goals from sophomores Emma Rose  and Amanda Steinmuller. Rose's score came as Gardner-Webb played a man-up advantage with 3:23 left to go in the half while Steinmuller found the net with 1:15 on the clock to cut the lead to 15-7.
 
At the start of the second half, however, Longwood regained its momentum as senior defender Shiloh McKenzie added a pair of goals, each set up by senior duo of McHugh and Butler, to extend the lead to 18-7.  McHugh connected with McKenzie 24 seconds into the half and 10 minutes later Butler set up McKenzie for her second and final goal of the day.
 
Over the final 10 minutes of the game, Butler recorded a goal and three assists, including set ups on both Stair's and McHugh's final goals of the afternoon and her fourth goal of the day with 34 seconds remaining in the game to close out a 22-goal effort by the blue and white.  The senior captain finished with 10 points and pushed her streak of scoring at least four goals and notching at least eight points to two consecutive games.
 
"It was really exciting to get out and pick up a solid win against a team that we knew we could beat," said Butler. "We really wanted to bring the fight and show what we are capable of doing before a pair of challenging games next week."
 
On the defensive end, the Lancers found success in slowing down the Runnin' Bulldogs' attack by holding them to six shots and one goal in the second half while forcing them into eight turnovers for the period. Butler, McKenzie and Madelynn Rollyn each caused two turnovers to help put Gardner-Webb at a disadvantage with 15 turnovers as a team.
 
Junior goalkeeper Chelsea DiIonno, who made her first start of the season, also contributed to Longwood's defensive success with two saves on 13 Gardner-Webb shots in 30 minutes of action. DiIonno picked up her second straight win to give her three on the season.
 
"We were really pleased with the effort and hustle today all over the field, which led to this great team win," said Jones.
 
The Lancers move above-.500 for the first time all season with a record of 6-5, 2-0 in conference play. Gardner-Webb falls to a 3-8 overall record, 1-2 in the Big South after coming off a win Wednesday night at Radford.
 
Longwood will look to extend its win streak as it starts start a two-game road trip with a matchup vs. nearby conference-rival Liberty on Wednesday, April 6. First draw is set for 4 p.m.
 
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