ANN ARBOR, Mich. – It took one of the top teams in the country to end Longwood field hockey's four-game win streak.
 
Vying to finish out an unbeaten week that began with a historic upset of No. 20 Liberty Tuesday, Longwood (5-2, 1-0 MAC) suffered only its second loss of the season at the hands of No. 17 Rutgers, 5-0 Sunday afternoon at the University of Michigan's Ocker Field.
 
The Lancers entered the neutral-site matchup fueled by the program's best start of the Division I era, but the high-powered Scarlet Knights (6-1) offense asserted itself early and often to hand the Lancers their first loss since a 2-0 defeat at the hands of No. 7 Virginia on Sept. 2.
 
The lone losses for the Lancers this season have come at the hands of two top-25 teams.
 
"Rutgers is a good team, and it was maybe one game too far for us in the past seven or eight days," said Longwood head coach Iain Byers, whose Lancers were playing their third game of the week Sunday after defeating Liberty Tuesday and MAC foe Central Michigan 3-0 Saturday.
 
"Maybe our legs just got a little tired, but it was a disappointing performance and not really excusable. We're going to learn from it and push on. Lessons can be learned from losses just as much as wins, and we're looking forward to our next conference game against [Appalachian State]."
 
Spearheaded by the NCAA's No. 2 assists leader Daphne Groothuis, Rutgers fired 18 shots on Longwood's goal, a career-high 12 of which Longwood goalkeeper Katie Wyman turned away, but five of which found the back of the net. The five goals Sunday matched the Lancers' season total for goals allowed in six games prior and improved Rutgers' goals-per-game average to 3.14, the 14th-highest clip in the nation.
 
Groothuis, Gianna Mancini, Tayla Parkes, Linde van Schaik and Kassidy Shetler all scored for the Scarlet Knights, who started the season unranked but have climbed to No. 23 and now No. 17 with six wins in their first seven games, including two over No. 6 Princeton and No. 18 St. Joe's.
 
On the other end of the field, Longwood struggled to find shooting lanes against Rutgers' staunch backline, putting just two shots on goal, which backup goalkeeper Amanda Lamb saved to give the Scarlet Knights their NCAA-leading fifth shutout of the season. Lancer scoring leader Leonie Verstraete took three of Longwood's four shots, but managed to fire just one of those on goal.
 
Despite the loss, Longwood still owns the MAC's best overall record at 5-2 and sits atop the conference standings at 1-0 following Saturday's conference win over Central Michigan. The Lancers return to MAC play this Thursday, Sept. 20, with a road trip to Appalachian State.
 
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