ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Senior forward Ethan Stevenson scored his second hat trick of the season  to lift the Longwood men's soccer team to a 4-3 victory over UNC Asheville in the first round of the 2024 Big South Conference Championship at Greenwood Field on Wednesday.

Stevenson — one of the Lancers' two first-team all-league selections for the first time in history — scored in the eighth, 53rd and 78th minutes, propelling his team on in the tournament for a date with No. 22 High Point in the semifinals Sunday at 6 p.m., at Vert Stadium. Longwood's other first-team selection, midfielder Aaron Asamoah, added a 66th-minute tally, assisted by All-Freshman Team pick Brando Bedolla.

The win for fifth-seeded Longwood (5-9-3) is its first in the Big South tournament since beating Asheville at home in the quarterfinals, 3-1, on Nov. 6, 2016. That Longwood team advanced to the championship match at Radford.

"I feel really good about our result," Longwood head coach Paul Gilbert said. "I think the guys were incredible. One of our better all-around performances on the year. I thought they executed the things we trained on and did our principles very, very well and hats off to our players. They were phenomenal."

Stevenson opened the scoring, causing a turnover in the back. He stripped an Asheville player of the ball and and sneaked a shot inside the near post on two-time Big South Goalkeeper of the Year Charlie Farrar (one save) for a 1-0 advantage.

The fourth-seeded Bulldogs (7-4-4), who were playing at home for the first time in 46 days after being displaced by Hurricane Helene, knotted the match at 1-1 in the 26th minute. Brendan Herb came flying in to pop the ball into the net after Longwood goalie Max Hinke made a stellar save on Aysa Hamid and the Lancers were unable to clear their lines.

Stevenson made it 2-1 in the 53rd as Bedolla's bounding ball from the top of the box found Stevenson's foot. He stabbed it into the net as Longwood retook the lead.

Asamoah opened a two-goal edge for the Lancers when he ran onto the end of a Bedolla feed in the midfield in behind the defense. The junior from Worms, Germany, didn't miss, tucking it low into the right corner.

Seth Hammond pulled one back in the 73rd minute for Asheville to make it 3-2, but Stevenson completed his hat trick five minutes later cleaning up the rebound of a shot from junior Simao Coelho that hit the post.

"Ethan Stevenson, what can you say about that kid? It's crazy," Gilbert said. "It seems like he gets better as the season has gone on. And he was special tonight. Scoring three goals is one thing, but his impact defensively, his ability to hold balls up and get us out of our half, he was really special tonight."

The Bulldogs responded with Herb's second goal of the game to pull within 4-3, but they got not closer.

"Credit to Asheville," said Gilbert. "They're a really tough team to play. They sub a lot of players into the game to keep fresh legs and they can be pretty direct at times. It puts a lot of pressure on you to deal with those services. They scored a couple of good goals and just wouldn't go away."

Hinke, who made five saves on the night, left the match with six minutes remaining with an injury. Freshman Tor Fletcher was solid the rest of the way, helping to see it out.