FARMVILLE, Va. – Longwood women's lacrosse scored the last four goals on Saturday afternoon, but Radford held off the Lancers for their fourth-consecutive victory, 9-7.
Saturday's win, just the second in program history for Radford over Longwood, extended the Highlanders' program-best winning streak to four, with three of those wins coming over Big South opponents. Radford has now held three-consecutive Big South opponents to single-digit scoring, as their stifling defense held edges in caused turnovers (17-12) and ground balls (34-24), while holding the Lancers to just a 17-of-23 clip on clear attempts.
Longwood's defense slowed down the Radford attack that entered with three-consecutive performances with double digit goals. Goalkeeper
Kylee Wright made 10 saves with a season-best save percentage of .526 (10-19), while the Lancers caused 12 turnovers and scooped 24 ground balls, both season highs. The nine goals allowed marked the second fewest conceded by Longwood in 2021, and first time holding their opponent to single digit goals since beating Delaware State on March 18.
Five Lancers secured at least three ground balls in
Dana Joss (5),
Rachel Abraham (4),
Hannah Tirrell (4),
Emma Johnson (3), and
Haley Moomau (3).
Ainsley Rowlison added four caused turnovers, while Tirrell and Joss combined for five. Longwood and Radford each tallied nine draw controls, as the Lancer were led by Joss (4),
Claire Libby (3), and Rowlison (2).
"We went into the game with a solid defensive game plan and the defense did a great job of executing it about 90% of the time," said Longwood head coach
Elaine Jones. We also achieved our team defensive goal, which was to hold Radford to under 10 goals, so that was nice to see. Kylee [Wright] hung in there and made multiple saves, some at point blank range, which was awesome."
"Unfortunately, our offense held the dreaded hiccup card today, having a very unproductive shooting and overall poor execution day. We had multiple opportunities to take control of the game as our defense capitalized off Radford's mistakes, but we just couldn't find the back of the net with any consistency."
Leading 5-3 at halftime, Radford scored the first four goals of the second half to inflate their lead to 9-3 with 13:10 remaining. Three separate Highlanders tallied two goals for Radford, as Grace Gleason, Jennifer Shield, and Lindsey Carroll all found the back of the net twice for a Highlander squad that outshot the Lancers 31-19.
The Lancers responded ended the game on a 4-0 run over the remaining 11:42, getting within two goals at the 1:31 mark.
Jade O'Connor scored twice during that stretch, while Taylor Blenkstone picked up her second goal of the game and
Nicole Fordyce added one of her own. However, the Highlander defense managed to stiffen up the rest of the way and hold on to a 9-7 win.
"We have a short turnaround time before hosting High Point and Gardner-Webb next week so we really need to continue to focus on our execution, not only on offense, but in transition as well," added Jones.
The Lancers will return home for their next two Big South contests, starting with preseason-favorite High Point on Wednesday, April 14 at 4 p.m. at Elizabeth Burger Jackson Field.
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