FARMVILLE, Va. – "Survive and advance" is the postseason mantra of many a championship-minded team.
In the quarterfinals of the Big South Championship Friday, Longwood advanced, but they did much more than just survive.
The No. 3 seed Lancers (12-4-3) made a statement in their opening-round game, controlling both ends of the field en route to a one-sided 3-0 win over No. 6 seed Charleston Southern at the Longwood Athletics Complex. The win propels Longwood to the Big South semifinals for the second straight year where they will take on No. 2 seed and Commonwealth rival Liberty next Friday, Nov. 3, at 7 p.m. at Bryan Park in Greensboro, N.C.
"That was a very energized, efficient and mature performance by our entire team," said Longwood head coach
Todd Dyer, whom the Big South recognized as the 2017 Coach of the Year before Friday's game.
"We didn't concede, we got our goals, and then we killed off the game. Our energy and work rate was key, and we have all of our Longwood fans and Farmville community to thank for that. We earned the right to play another game together and look forward to that opportunity next Friday. Our focus now is to recover and put in a solid week of training."
Armed with a lineup that features the Big South's Defensive Player of the Year
Sydney Wallace, Freshman of the Year
Carrie Reaver, Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Teresa Fruchterman and a slew of all-conference award winners, the Lancers set a program record for goals in a Big South Tournament game while picking up their Big South-leading 10th shutout of the year.
Fruchterman and Wallace both scored goals in the second half, following junior midfielder
Kelly Almeida's first-half game-winner in the 35th minute. Their three goals came as part of a blitzkrieg on the Charleston Southern (5-11-2) net that saw the Lancers outshoot the Bucs 28-10 and set season highs in both shots and shots on goal (17).
Nine different Lancers put shots on net, berating Charleston Southern goalkeeper Alyssa Dellacqua, who racked up 13 saves but still saw three Longwood shots slip by her, including two on set pieces initiated by All-Big South first team midfielder
Janese Quick. Quick earned a pair of assists on the night, her first on a corner kick sequence that ended with Fruchterman's goal, and the second on a textbook free kick that she sent into the box where Wallace headed it in to punctuate the scoring.
"We stayed connected as a team, and we executed," said Wallace, whose 74th-minute score was her first of the season.
On the defensive end, Wallace, Reaver and All-Big South second team defender
Taylor Alvey and goalkeeper
Maria Kirby lived up to their billing, holding Charleston Southern to just five shots on goal. The Bucs spent the bulk of the second half unable to get past a Longwood midfield unit anchored by Quick and junior
Amber Hodges, both of whom played 70-plus minutes in the win.
"The message to the team before the game was there's plenty of quality in our team, but for the soccer to shine through, the trick is to come out with energy and try to outwork whoever's in front of you," Dyer said. "We did a pretty good job being proactive in that area and setting the tempo and pace of the game where we wanted it. Everything just fell into place after that."
The Lancers have now won seven of their past nine games entering Friday's semifinal showdown against rival Liberty and are just one win shy of tying the 2012 team's all-time Division I wins record of 13. That opportunity will come against a Liberty team that pulled out a 2-1 win over No. 7 seed Gardner-Webb Friday.
#GoWood
