MORE: 2019 Schedule
FARMVILLE, Va. – For a Longwood women's soccer team coming off back-to-back third-place finishes in the Big South, there will be no easing into 2019.
With a veteran-laden roster that includes seven returning starters and 19 letterwinners from last year's squad, the Lancers will test themselves early and often in 2019 with a non-conference schedule that includes teams from the Atlantic 10, Conference USA and the Patriot League, the reigning Southwestern Athletic Conference champion, and five Commonwealth foes.
Eleven of Longwood's 20 games will take place at home at the Longwood Athletics Complex, including the Aug. 30 showdown against Charlotte which will serve as the culmination of Longwood's annual Greatest Athletics March Ever (G.A.M.E.). The 7 p.m. kickoff will follow the university's march through Farmville, which annually brings together thousands of Lancers who trek from campus to the field.
The challenging first half of the schedule will serve as a proving ground entering Big South play for the championship-minded Lancers, according to head coach
Todd Dyer, who has amassed a 261-172-37 overall record and a 35-17-8 Big South record in his 25 seasons leading the Lancers.
"The whole point of our non-conference schedule is to challenge us and prepare us for conference play," said Dyer, the 2017 Big South Coach of the Year. "This schedule does that, and we'll face that fire immediately with our exhibition games against Liberty and William & Mary. We'll face big programs from schools in big conferences, and we'll have to be at our best as early as possible."
The Lancers will take on that schedule with a deep lineup spearheaded by All-Big South first-team forward
Emilie Kupsov, fellow frontline playmaker
Kennedy Culbreath, and a veteran backfield anchored by former Big South Freshman of the Year
Carrie Reaver, returning senior starters
Taylor Alvey and
Erica Sieben, and junior goalkeeper
Madison Van Dyke.
That group will use those first eight games – along with back-to-back exhibitions against Liberty on Aug. 14 and at William & Mary on Aug. 17 – as the preseason to the 10-game Big South schedule that begins at Presbyterian on Sept. 21 and concludes on the road at reigning runner-up Gardner-Webb on Oct. 26. In-between, the Lancers will host a number of marquee conference matchups, including an Oct. 2 home showdown against reigning Big South champion and perennial rival Radford, an Oct. 12 rematch against a USC Upstate team that eliminated the Lancers from the 2018 Big South Championship tournament, and an Oct. 23 home finale against heated conference rival and annual title contender High Point.
"I believe the Big South is a free-for-all more than ever," Dyer said. "Obviously Radford is on top of the mountain right now, and deservedly so, but there are four or five more teams that have really been knocking on the door recently. The bottom line is everyone in this league is good enough to beat each other, so it's that consistency of performance and results that will make the difference through the course of the season. I'm excited about our group and can't wait to see how we measure up."
Longwood will prep for that throwdown during a month-long non-conference slate that includes matchups against the reigning Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) champion Howard, Atlantic 10 runner-up VCU and two other teams – Old Dominion and Coastal Carolina – that finished .500 or better and earned top-five finishes in their respective conferences. Both VCU and Howard won double-digit games a year ago, while former Big South rival Coastal Carolina joined those two programs in earning a top-three conference finish.
The Lancers will also face off against Atlantic 10 foe and Commonwealth rival Richmond, Conference USA affiliate Charlotte, Patriot League member American and America East affiliate UMBC in non-conference play. Six of those contests, including the preseason opener against Liberty, will take place at the Longwood Athletics Complex where the Lancers own a 56-26-8 record over the past decade.
"We open the season with three games that are an absolute gauntlet as we head to Richmond and then host VCU and Charlotte," Dyer said. "Richmond is about as evenly-matched and competitive of a series as you can get, VCU is coming off an absolutely phenomenal season in the A-10, and we took Charlotte to overtime last year in a really tough loss. The bottom line is we have to come together quickly as a unit in our preseason training if we want to have a shot at any of those games."
After hosting VCU and Charlotte on Aug. 25 & 30, the Lancers then welcome SWAC champion Howard to Farmville on Sept. 2 to conclude a challenging three-game homestand against three teams that went a combined 36-20-2 in 2018. The Bison were nearly perfect in the SWAC regular season, going 8-1-1 before cruising to a SWAC Championship and an NCAA berth.
After that homestand, Longwood will head to the coast for back-to-back road games at Old Dominion on Sept. 8 at Coastal Carolina on Sept. 8. The Monarchs went 8-7-4 last season and 5-3-2 in a stout Conference USA, while the Chanticleers continued to assert themselves in the Sun Belt and finished 7-3 in league play for a third-place finish. The matchup against Coastal Carolina will be Longwood's first since the Chanticleers' departure from the Big South in 2016.
Two more home games against a pair of northeastern foes await Longwood after returning from the beach, as American and UMBC come to town for two games in a three-day span on Sept. 13-15. Those will be Longwood's last two tune-ups before the start of Big South play, which commences with back-to-back road games at Presbyterian on Sept. 21 and Hampton on Sept. 25.
Longwood's first home Big South action follows on Sept. 28 against a Charleston Southern team that is coming off 9-6 record in 2018 a fifth-place Big South finish.
After facing the Buccaneers, the Lancers will take part in one of the most anticipated Big South matchups of the season as reigning champion Radford heads to the Athletics Complex for a Sept. 2 clash between two perennial title contenders. The Highlanders made a splash not just in the Big South last year but on a national level as well, going 16-3-1 overall and 9-1 in the Big South before winning the Big South Championship and advancing to the NCAA Tournament. Since making the jump to the Division I level, Longwood is 7-7-1 against Radford and 2-2 over the past four seasons. Longwood's two wins during that span both came at home, while Radford's both came in Radford.
After the rivalry showdown against Radford, a road trip to Winthrop awaits on Oct. 5 followed by another two-game homestand against USC Upstate and Campbell on Oct. 12 & 16. The bout against USC Upstate will allow Longwood a chance at redemption after the Spartans – last year's sixth-place Big South finisher – upset the Lancers 1-0 in the Big South quarterfinals. With an 11-9 record last year, USC Upstate will be one of five double-digit-win teams the Lancers face this season. Campbell, meanwhile, is coming off a fourth-place finish in last year's Big South standings.
The final three games of the regular season pit Longwood at UNC Asheville on Oct. 19, at home against High Point on Oct. 23 and at reigning runner-up Gardner-Webb on Oct. 26 in the Big South finale. The High Point game will be Longwood's final regular-season matchup at home and will be against a league rival against whom the Lancers finally broke through against with a 2-1 road win in last year's meeting. The Panthers have reached three of the past five Big South Championship games, winning two of those, including the 2017 showdown against Longwood.
With potential Big South Championship tournament implications on the line, Longwood's final regular-season showdown will be against another title contender as the Lancers head to Gardner-Webb on Oct. 26. The Runnin' Bulldogs won 12 games last year, including a 7-1-2 mark in the Big South, and advanced to last year's Big South Championship against Radford.
The Big South Championship tournament follows from Nov. 1-10 with the top eight teams making the postseason field. Last season the Lancers earned quarterfinal hosting duties and could do so again from Nov. 1-3 with a top-four finish. A quarterfinal win would propel Longwood to championship weekend where they would take part in the Big South semifinals on Nov. 7 and championship game on Nov. 10.
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