RICHMOND, Va. – Four days ago, Longwood head coach Todd Dyer said his team lacked energy, purpose and sharpness in an uncharacteristically flat 2-0 loss at UMBC.
 
Thursday night, the Lancers regained that spark and then some.
 
Playing their second double-overtime bout of the season, the Lancers (5-3-1) used a first-half goal from Emily Mothersbaugh and a nine-save night from human wall Maria Kirby to force a 1-1 draw against VCU Thursday night at Sports Backers Stadium.
 
The draw snapped a three-game win streak for the host Rams (4-2-1), who had won three straight home games since Oct. 20, 2016 and who entered the night ranked among the top three in the Atlantic 10 in goals, assists and goals allowed. Their trademark offense was on display from the opening whistle, but only one of their 26 shots got past Kirby, whose nine saves moved her into third place on Longwood's all-time list with a 0.91 career goals against average.
 
"That was another gritty performance by our team and a result that we fought hard for," said Dyer, whose 5-3-1 non-conference record is Longwood's best since joining the Big South six years ago.
 
"We played our better soccer in the first half, but we were forced to deal with more pressure in the second. The bottom line is we went toe-to-toe with one of the top teams in this year's A-10, and that should help us going into Big South play."
 
 The 110-minute draw was a firing range from the start and featured a combined 41 shots, 18 of which were on goal. Kirby and her VCU counterpart Audrey Sanderson went head-to-head in a showdown of veteran keepers, with Kirby dispatching a season-high nine of VCU's 10 shots on goal and Sanderson countering with seven saves on the eight Longwood shots she faced.
 
Kirby's performance, coupled with the second career goal from the freshman Mothersbaugh in the 23rd minute, made Longwood only the third team this season not to succumb to the Rams, joining No. 8 Clemson and Conference USA preseason No. 2 Charlotte.
 
Kirby also became only the second goalkeeper to hold VCU under two goals this season, joining Clemson's Sandy MacIver.
 
That performance became even more crucial as the game progressed, as VCU bounced back from Mothersbaugh's early go-ahead score to unleash an onslaught on the Lancer net that eventually yielded the game-tying goal from Tori Browne in the 62nd minute.
 
That goal came as part of a furious start to the second half for the Rams, who unloaded six of their 14 second-half shots within the first 15 minutes after the opening whistle. Kirby saved all but one of those, including a 77th-minute corner kick and an 80th-minute try from VCU leading scorer Amanda Tredway.
 
Longwood returned 15 shots in kind, but Sanderson dispatched the final seven she saw, including three in overtime.
 
The game was Longwood's second double-overtime contest of 2017 and signaled the end of the 2017 non-conference schedule. The Lancers now have their longest break of the season – nine days – to prepare for the Big South opener, which pits them against reigning league regular-season champion High Point in Farmville on Sept. 23.
 
#GoWood