FARMVILLE, Va. – In a matchup that pitted Longwood's Big South-leading defense against Radford's No. 2-ranked offense, it was the Lancer front line that stole the show.
Buoyed by a pair of second-half goals from sophomores
Taylor Alvey and
Emilie Kupsov, Longwood (9-4-2, 4-1-1) dominated Commonwealth rival Radford on both ends of the field, outshooting the Highlanders 25-9 and allowing just four shots on goal.
The victory extended the Lancers' unbeaten streak to five games and kept them in second place in the Big South standings, just three points behind first-place Liberty with three conference games remaining.
"That was a pretty solid performance on both sides of the ball against a Radford team that we have a ton of respect for," said head coach
Todd Dyer, whose win was the 249th of his career, all in his 24 years at Longwood. "They really set the standard a few years back and have multiple trophies to show for it. Now we're trying to get to that next level, and it takes results like tonight to establish that culture and mentality."
The win comes against a Radford (8-6-1, 1-5-1 Big South) team that is only four seasons removed from a dominant four-year run through the Big South from 2010-13, during which they won back-to-back conference titles, back-to-back regular-season titles and advanced to three consecutive Big South championship games.
That history went out the window at the opening whistle, however, as Longwood's hard-nosed midfield unit kept the ball in Radford territory throughout the 90-minute rout and set the tone for the Lancers' Big South-leading eighth shutout of the year. Senior goalkeeper
Maria Kirby earned four saves for that clean sheet, which was the 24th of her career and moved her into a tie for second place on Longwood's all-time shutouts list, alongside Lindsey Naill, and only two shy of Amy Kennedy's school-record 26.
The shutdown performance came against a Radford team that entered the matchup averaging 2.30 goals per game, second most in the Big South, and boasted four players that ranked in the Big South's top-10 goal-scorers. Longwood held those four players – Jasmine Casarez, Nelia Perez, Gabi Paupst and Jessica Wollmann – to just three shots, combined, all night.
"It's all been leading up to this," said Alvey, whose 58th-minute strike was the game-winner and the first goal of her career. "We've had a great season so far; we've worked hard, we've gotten better every game and now it's about keeping it going, staying confident and not letting our heads get too big."
The typically defensive-minded Alvey got the scoring started 12 minutes into the second half, punctuating a 45-second barrage of shots that saw the Lancers take four cracks at Radford's goal in less than a minute. Longwood forced a pair of corner kicks during that spurt, the second of which, launched by senior captain
Janese Quick, led to a loose ball in the box that Alvey pounced on and drilled past Radford goalkeeper Courtenay Kaplan.
The goal was the first of Alvey's career and made her the eighth different game-winning goal-scorer in Longwood's nine wins this season.
"Everyone works so hard for each other on this team," Alvey said. "Being able to reward your teammates with a goal when they work so hard for you is awesome."
Seventeen minutes later, Kupsov got in on the action, corralling a pass from
Amber Hodges, beating her lone defender and unloading a left-footed bullet from the just outside the box to the lower right corner of the Radford net. That goal was Kupsov's third of the season, extending her team-leading points total to 10 on the year.
The Lancers have now earned four shutouts in the past five games, a stretch in which they are 4-0-1 and have outshot the opposition 92-60 overall and 41-23 on goal.
"Defensively, we were tough to break down tonight and offensively, we moved the ball pretty well, created chances and eventually got the goals I thought we deserved," Dyer said. "A big focus for us tonight was to be more combative and physical in dealing with 50-50 balls in the air, and I thought we showed great improvement in that area. If we can continue to grow there, along with the type of soccer we try to play, this collective group can be something special moving forward."
Now trailing first-place Liberty by just three points Longwood has three regular-season games remaining before the start of the 2017 Big South Championship, which begins with the quarterfinal round on Oct. 27. Before the postseason, however, Longwood must navigate an end-of-season schedule that features Saturday's road matchup at UNC Asheville, a home showdown against Liberty on Oct. 18 and the season finale at Gardner-Webb on Oct. 21.
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