BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. – Good teams respond. Saturday night at Gardner-Webb, Longwood did so twice.
 
Facing an early 1-0 deficit and later a 2-2 deadlock in the closing minutes, the surging Lancers (4-5-4, 3-0-2 Big South) overcame both to continue their Big South climb, extend their unbeaten streak to five consecutive games, and gut out a 3-2 road win against Gardner-Webb at Greene-Harbison Stadium.
 
Junior midfielder Danielle Toone led Longwood's latest charge with two goals and an 84th-minute game-winner to send the Lancers their third straight win and vault them into sole possession of second place in the Big South standings behind only first-place Campbell (4-0).
 
That game-winner provided the exclamation point to a back-and-forth battle that saw Gardner-Webb (5-8, 2-2 Big South) jump out to a 1-0 lead 8:11 after the opening kickoff, Longwood respond with back-to-back goals from Toone and Catharine Forst, and Gardner-Webb's Klara Ovefelt provide some late-game dramatics with an equalizer in the 75th minute.
 
However, Toone – whose multi-goal game was the first of her career – gave Longwood the final say, driving in in her second career game-winner at the 83:59 mark to punctuate the comeback win.
 
"I'm happy with the result of the game and the way we were able to come back twice," said Toone, whose first goal, set up by a pass from Alayna Palamar, also knotted the score at 1-1 in the 23rd minute.
 
"We fought hard the entire match, and the result showed it. Today's performance showed we are starting to become what we envisioned for ourselves in August, and we couldn't be happier."
 
Longwood's five-game unbeaten streak to open Big South play is the longest active streak in the conference and just two shy of the seven-game tear the Lancers opened with during the 2021 spring's Big South gauntlet. This season's streak, which has included back-to-back-to-back one-goal road wins at Presbyterian, Hampton and Gardner-Webb, has seen the Lancers trail for only 8:11 of their past 490 minutes while outshooting their past five foes 68-43.
 
"Tonight these ladies answered the question tonight as to how bad they want to win," said Longwood associate head coach Rich Stoneman, now in his eighth year with the program alongside 28th-year head coach Todd Dyer. "Their play, fight and resilience answered that call. We went down a goal and fought back to equalize. We gave up another, and we still fought for the win.

"The gameplan was to play and impose our game on Gardner-Webb, be relentless in 1-v-1s and show grit in the final third. These ladies executed that well. We can still be better in certain areas, but we are overly proud of this team tonight and have been for some time. Collectively, they deserve every ounce of credit for this win and a very hard three points on the road."
 
Now the Lancers will bring that streak into an upcoming four-game homestand that marks the team's return to Farmville after a grueling stretch that has seen them play nine of their past 10 games on the road. The first of those Big South clashes will be the league's biggest women's soccer match to date, with first-place Campbell coming to Farmville this Wednesday for a 7 p.m. showdown on ESPN+.
 
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