HIGH POINT, N.C. – For the second straight year, the Big South quarterfinal is coming back to Longwood.
 
With first-round hosting rights in the Big South Championship on the line, Longwood sophomore Kennedy Culbreath scored the first golden goal of her career in double overtime to send Longwood (8-6-3, 6-2-2 Big South) past High Point 2-1 and secure the Lancers' second straight top-three Big South finish.
 
Culbreath's 104th-minute game-winner clinched the tournament's No. 3 seed for the Lancers and added another layer to a rivalry that has been building for years but reached a fever pitch nearly one year ago when High Point (5-9-4, 3-4-3 Big South) edged Longwood 1-0 in the 2017 Big South Championship game.
 
Now the Lancers will get another chance to return to the title game with a Big South Championship gauntlet that begins Friday at 7 p.m. against No. 6 seed USC Upstate at the Longwood Athletics Complex.
 
"Awesome result tonight against a program that has our utmost respect," said Longwood head coach Todd Dyer, who has now led Longwood to four top-three finishes in seven years as a member of the Big South.
 
"Even more special was that we came from behind on the road and battled for the win in overtime. It's most satisfying the way we played with our ball possession and attack throughout the game. If we can clean up some things defensively, I think we can have a pretty solid postseason."
 
Tuesday's matchup was the first rematch between Longwood and High Point since the 2017 title game in which the top-seeded Panthers ended Longwood's championship aspirations in their first trip to the title game.. The Lancers exacted their vengeance in comeback fashion, overcoming a 1-0 second-half deficit on High Point's home field behind sophomore Camryn Conklin's equalizer in the 65th minute and Culbreath's sudden-death strike in the 104th minute.
 
The victory bookends a regular season that saw Longwood win six of its final seven matches, go 2-1-2 in overtime games and finish as the Big South's No. 2 scoring team in conference play.
 
Culbreath has been one of several forwards contributing to Longwood's high-scoring offense, amassing a career-high eight points this season, including Tuesday's goal. That game-winner was not only the first of her career, it was the biggest, and the postgame mob from her teammates showed it.
 
"I couldn't really move at all. Everyone was on top of me," she said.
 
"It was a really big moment and a really great experience. To be able to score for my team like that after we all worked so hard in this game and didn't give up, it's a great feeling."
 
Culbreath's goal came on her only shot of the game but punctuated yet another stifling effort from the Lancers, who outshot High Point 21-5 and allowed the Panthers just two shots on goal for the entire 104-minute affair.  Key to that effort in the backfield was Longwood's ironwoman duo of Carrie Reaver and Sydney Wallace, who played every minute of the game and helped the Lancers hold their seventh consecutive opponent to one or fewer goals.
 
Now winners of two straight games, the Lancers will take their 3-2-1 home record into the first round of Big South Championship play Friday against a USC Upstate team they defeated 3-0 earlier this year. Longwood is 2-1 all-time as a Big South postseason host, and would move on to a semifinal game against the winner of No. 2 seed Gardner-Webb and No. 7 seed Winthrop with a win Friday.
 
The Big South semifinals will take place Friday, Nov. 2, and the championship the following Sunday, all at Matthews Sportsplex in Matthews, N.C.
 
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