FARMVILLE, Va. – George Mason attacker Chachi Kelehan scored all four of her goals in the first half to give the Patriots an early lead they never relinquished en route to a 16-9 win over Longwood Saturday afternoon at Elizabeth Burger Jackson Field.
 
Kelehan added three assists and amassed a game-high seven points to spearhead a Patriots (1-2) attack that staked an 8-2 lead within the game's first 20 minutes and rode that cushion to hand Longwood its first home loss of the season. Kelehan scored three of her goals during a 7-0 run midway through the first half that extended George Mason's lead to 8-2 before the Lancers (1-2) bounced back after halftime.
 
"This was definitely a disappointing loss today," said Longwood head coach Elaine Jones. "George Mason didn't do anything special that we hadn't prepared for, but they executed their gameplan very well and we didn't respond the way we should have.
 
"Our inability to stick to our gameplan and our lack of execution hurt us and allowed Mason to get a big jump on us in the first half. After that, we were always playing catch up, which against a good team, is not an enviable position to play from."
 
Following George Mason's 7-0 run, Longwood nearly matched the Patriots the rest of the way and battled to a 4-4 draw in the second half. However, that early deficit proved too much to overcome, as three goals from team scoring leader Kaitlin Luccarelli and two apiece from Emma Johnson and Dana Joss came too late.
 
Along with Kelehan's four goals, fellow Patriot attacker Deanna Balsama netted three, and defender Julianna Brown added one goal and a pair of assists.
 
Longwood goalkeeper Danielle Burke, in her second career start following Longwood's 14-12 win over George Washington last Saturday, managed nine saves but could do little to slow down a high-powered George Mason attack that outshot Longwood 34-22.
 
"I thought Dani came up with several nice saves so that was a positive, but our defense needed to support her a lot better," Jones said.
 
The home loss comes in the midst of a grueling start to the season for the Lancers, who open the year with four consecutive games against Atlantic 10 foes. The last of those matchups comes this Wednesday, Feb. 27, when Longwood heads to Richmond to take on VCU at 4 p.m.
 
"Although the way we lost stings a bit today, there are certainly lessons our young team will take from this and use to make ourselves better as the season progresses. Our team is resilient, so I know we won't let this loss get us down. We have a few days to prepare for our next game, so we will turn our mental focus towards that preparation."
 
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