By CHRIS COOK
LongwoodLancers.com
FARMVILLE, Va. – "We just want to continue taking it one game at a time."
Even before he finishes one of the most well-known clichés in all of sports, Longwood women's soccer head coach
Todd Dyer smirks. It's a phrase he has uttered plenty in his 24 years as head coach of the Lancers, and it's a tried-and-true philosophy that has earned him 250 career wins at the only college he has ever coached.
But even for Dyer, there are some games whose stakes are so high that their magnitude transcends clichés. Games whose implications create an uptick of adrenaline in the locker room. Games whose opponents evoke flashbacks of series histories rife with narrow wins and losses. Games whose date on the schedule has been circled – literally or figuratively – for months.
When second-place Longwood hosts first-place Liberty Wednesday night at 7 p.m., it will be one of those games.
"We try not to make it bigger than it is, but they know what's at stake," Dyer said. "You prepare all summer, all year and all preseason to put yourself in a position to play in meaningful games late in the season. This is certainly one of those."
There may not be a game on the Lancers' schedule as meaningful as the one they play tonight on the Big South Network. In addition to Longwood's most heated and familiar rival, Liberty (8-5-3, 6-0-1 Big South) enters the matchup as the lone remaining unbeaten team in the Big South. The Flames own a mere three-point lead for first place in the standings, separated from three second-place teams – all tied at 5-1-1 – by just one win.
One of those teams is Longwood, and standing in the way of a shot at the program's first Big South Regular Season Championship is Liberty. But the Flames, winners of two of the league's past three regular-season titles, see it the other way around.
On paper, the matchup strikes the balance one would expect from a showdown of conference frontrunners. Longwood boasts the Big South's top defense, leading the conference with a miniscule 0.57 goals against average and eight shutouts. But the Flames are inarguably the hottest team in the Big South, having outscored their past seven foes 7-1 with six shutouts during that unbeaten streak.
And as if the fire needed any more fuel, plenty of rivalry rancor has been established over the past decade, during which nine consecutive games in the series have been decided by one goal.
What has now shaped up to be an unofficial title fight has been building for months. Both teams have the resumes of heavyweights, and the fact that they'll each have to play one more game after Wednesday's result is, at least for the next 24-or-so hours, irrelevant. This is the pay-per-view, and both teams are ready to rumble.
It's no wonder Dyer can't keep a straight face.
"As cliché as it sounds, it's true," he said. "We just want to beat Liberty because we haven't done it in a little while."
In fact, it's been five years since the Lancers beat Liberty, meaning that no player on Longwood's current roster has enjoyed the pleasure of knocking off the school's most heated rival.
Even for Longwood senior captain and on-field sparkplug
Teresa Fruchterman, viewing Wednesday's game through the same lens as all others this season proves difficult.
"This rivalry started for me when [Liberty] kicked us out of making the tournament my freshman year," Fruchterman said. "As far as standings, I don't really look into that because every team in our conference can win. Because of that, we've been focusing one game at a time, but this is definitely a huge game."
Beyond avenging that postseason-dashing loss to the Flames in the 2014 season finale, there's an even deeper layer of meaning to this one for Fruchterman and her senior counterparts
Maria Kirby,
Janese Quick and
Jenna Tomayko. Those four, who have paved the way for a Longwood team that has already clinched home-field advantage in this year's Big South Championship quarterfinals, will have to not only prepare for Liberty, but they'll have to do so while combating the realization that Wednesday's game will be the final regular-season home game of their careers.
They will get their well-deserved 15 minutes of fame before kickoff Wednesday as part of the scheduled Senior Day ceremony, but after the hugs have been doled out and tears have been shed, they'll be looking for much more.
"This is a memorable season, I think there's still a lot left in us, and I think the seniors have led the way," Dyer said. "We're excited to hopefully send them off in style. We'll give them their due credit before the game, and then we'll hit the reset button and get to work."
That's another cliché from Dyer. But this time, no smirk.
#GoWood
