FARMVILLE, Va. – The Longwood field hockey attack and defense that posted 41 goals and five shutouts in 2017 made itself ever-present Friday.

In their first game action of the preseason, Longwood blanked Commonwealth rival Richmond 2-0 from Elizabeth Burger Jackson Field as 21 Lancers saw the field including all nine freshmen.

Just as she did multiple times last season, forward Leonie Verstraete opened the scoring with two first half goals to provide Friday's difference. Verstraete's first came on a short corner as freshmen Kolbey Donahue and Luna Lopez registered their first assists in a Lancer uniform.

"It's a good start to the season, we've got some solid stuff to learn from," said 11^th-year head coach Iain Byers. "The second half wasn't great, but Richmond's a great team and lessons were learned. We weren't too worried about the result, just the performance. There were some things that were good and some things we need to work on. We're right at the point where we thought we were coming in and that's a good sign."

The second strike came on a loose ball in the circle when Verstraete punched it past the goalkeeper into the bottom right corner to extend the lead to 2-0 where it would hold the rest of the way.

Friday's win was the first of three preseason exhibitions in four days as Longwood welcomes Queens of Charlotte Saturday and Lynchburg Monday before the regular season kicks off Friday, August 24 when Bucknell comes to town for The G.A.M.E. 9.0.

#GoWood