FARMVILLE, Va. – Throughout the 2018 season, Longwood men's soccer has incorporated a mantra of team over self.

The Lancers need everyone on their team to step up Wednesday night at the Longwood Athletics Complex, as Markus Gronli had a career-high five points with two goals and an assist while Jacob Reimers kept the clean sheet in the Lancers' 3-0 win over Campbell.

"I couldn't think of a better way to finish off the regular season with getting the clean sheet and putting ourselves in position ahead of the tournament," said Longwood head coach Jon Atkinson. "We performed how we should. It was a great way to send off the seniors in front of friends, family and supporters."

On a night in which Longwood honored eight seniors, freshman Markus Gronli took hold of the spotlight with his pair of second-half strikes to put the game out of reach while also assisting on senior Willy Miezan's goal in the 39th minute.

"We didn't care who stole the spotlight," Atkinson said. "One of our mottos is team over self and all of the guys are delighted to get the victory. Markus is an exceptional talent and I believe the young man is starting to understand what it takes to be successful at this level."

The performance pushed Longwood into the Big South Tournament on a night in which the Lancers (5-12-1, 3-4-1 Big South) had to get a win against a Campbell (7-8-1, 4-3-1 Big South) that was vying for a top-two seed in next week's Big South Tournament.

Longwood who won two seasons ago against Liberty on the final day of the 2016 regular season and carried that momentum all the way to the Big South Championship game, will look to accomplish the same when it begins its tournament quest in a quarterfinal matchup at Presbyterian in match that's set for a 6 p.m. start Sunday, Nov. 4.

"We played with a sense of urgency tonight and I believe our team plays better when we have more at stake," Atkinson said. "The guys know they're capable and tonight showed exactly that."

The game for Gronli marked his second multi-point game of the season, bettering a three-point effort at VMI in the season-opener, securing Longwood's first five-point effort  by a true freshman in the program's Division I era and the fifth-most in that same span.

"I just wanted to help the team get a win to send off our seniors," Gronli said. "It was a big night for the older guys, especially with it being senior night. They've helped me out a lot this season."

In addition to Gronli, Reimers engineered his backline to a clean sheet against a Campbell team that finished second only to high-powered regular season champion High Point with 31 goals with a dynamic season-high eight-save effort.

"I'm happy with my performance overall and that we were able to come out with a win," Reimers said. "There were a couple moments that were scary but the defense did a great job communicating and it was a team effort overall to keep the clean sheet."

The starting backline quartet of Sherif Maalouf, Ryan Fleming, Dan Ahrens and Jonas Kalchner aided Reimers effort by blocking a total of five shots – including a key block that Kalchner made in the 68th minute by taking away an open net on Campbell's Josh Signey. Overall, Longwood's stout defensive effort that was also aided by Aj Kmeic, Denzel Speed, Dan Marques and Cody Bell off the bench limited the Camels to 15 of their 23 shots off target.  

"The backline was fantastic. From Ryan [Fleming], Aj [Kmeic], Ahrans [Dan Ahrens], Jonas [Kalchner] to the guys that came in Denzel [Speed], Dan [Marques], Cody [Bell] – everybody did a great job along that group to support Reimo [Jacob Reimers]," Maalouf said. "If we can keep it up as a backline and keep a clean sheet, I'm confident in the guys in the midfield and up top to get the job done in front of us."  

Miezan scored his team-leading sixth goal of the season to hand Longwood a 1-0 lead in the late stages of the opening half, as he has scored in back-to-back games for the Lancers and moved him into fifth-place in the conference this season in goals scored.

The season for Miezan comes from battling back from back-to-back ACL tears after scoring 13 goals as a redshirt-freshman in 2015 and finishing on the Big South All-Conference Team.

Longwood honored its eight seniors – Bell, Fleming, Marques, Speed, Miezan, Josh Hanratty, and Andreas Aderiye. Wednesday's game marked the second time in three seasons that the group aided Longwood to a tournament berth on its final day of the regular season.

"I really love this school – all of my teammates, coaches, administration – it's just a great family atmosphere," Maalouf said. "The seniors gave a lot to this school and we're going to go out loyal."

"They're a fantastic bunch that have invested a lot into this team," Atkinson said. "They'll take a part of the culture with them. The year isn't over yet for these guys but we're going to lose eight guys of high character, leadership qualities. All of them are high-quality young men."

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