LYNCHBURG, Va. – Longwood senior captain Ellen Ross said it was the best 70 minutes of hockey she's seen from her team all season. Head coach Iain Byers said he's been expecting a game like that for a long time.
 
For a player and coach at the center of an historic start to Longwood field hockey's 10th Division I season, setting the bar has proven to be a difficult task. The Lancers (6-3) raised that mark once again Tuesday, in upset fashion no less, by pulling off their biggest win of the year with a 4-3 comeback win over Commonwealth rival and Big East preseason darling Liberty at Liberty Field Hockey Field.
 
The Flames (1-5) entered the matchup ranked No. 34 in the NCAA field hockey Rating Percentage Index (RPI) and No. 2 in the Big East preseason coaches poll. Those numbers became irrelevant 70 minutes after Tuesday's opening whistle when the Lancers overcame a 2-0 deficit late in the second half on the strength of back-to-back goals from the offensive super duo Edel Nyland and Leonie Verstraete in the final seven minutes of the game.
 
"There's no better feeling," said Ross.
 
That's a weighty statement from a senior who has been the fulcrum of a full season's worth of good feelings this year.
 
The win was Longwood's third in a row, extending the program's longest winning streak since a three-game tear in 2013 and furthering a monumental start that has the Lancers off to their first 6-3 record since making the jump to Division I in 2007.
 
The most recent of those wins came Tuesday against a Liberty squad that had seen some of the best teams in the nation, enduring a four-game road gauntlet at No. 2 Syracuse, No. 4 Duke, No. 11 Virginia and No. 19 James Madison to start the season. The Flames lost three of those games by one goal, including in overtime at Syracuse on Sept. 3.
 
Thanks to Nyland and Verstraete's late-game fireworks, the Lancers join that list of Flame extinguishers as well.
 
"We played our best every minute for 70 minutes," said Ross, who was on the field for every second of the victory. "In my four years here, I've never been so proud of this team. We finally got a big win, and we deserved it."
 
The reigning MAC Defensive Player of the Week, Ross anchored a backfield unit that shut down Liberty's attack over the final 13 minutes of the game. After Kendra Jones attempted to let the air out of Longwood's comeback bid with a 57th-minute goal that put the Flames back up 3-2, the Lancers locked down and held Liberty without a shot the rest of the way.
 
That opened the door for the MAC's top offensive duo to go to work with the clock ticking down. The NCAA's second-leading goal scorer Nyland needed just six minutes to find the back of the net with her second goal of the day, a 64th-minute equalizer that Verstraete fed to her across the face of the net. It was her MAC-leading 12th goal this season and capped her third career multi-goal game, all of which have come in 2016.
 
Nyland's equalizer set the stage for an epic final 6:25 in which the Lancers used the next four-plus minutes to build up to one shot, which Abbey Ripley delivered to Verstraete, who drove it home for her third game-winner of the season.  
 
"I couldn't be more proud of the team's performance," Byers said. "We've been building up to a game like this; it's something we've had in our locker room for some time."
 
Longwood scored four goals for the third straight game, increasing their MAC-leading goals total to 29 at the halfway point of the season. Nyland and Verstraete have combined for 20 of those as the MAC's top scoring duo and one of the five most productive in the entire nation. They combined for three goals and an assist Tuesday to avenge the team's last trip to Liberty, which the Flames won 8-1 in Lynchburg in 2014.
 
"To bring out the performance we had and get a comeback in such a game like this against a local rival is huge," Byers said. "The team did everything we asked them to do and more. We showed great leadership and controlled a very even game against a very tough team. I'm really proud and excited to see this progress that shows what we're capable of."
 
The signature win comes just five days prior to Longwood's MAC opener against two-time reigning champion Kent State this Sunday, Sept. 25. The Lancers will welcome the Flashes to Farmville at noon that day, putting their 3-0 home record on the line against a Kent State team that is 18-5 in conference play over the past four seasons.

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