RADFORD, Va. – Longwood lacrosse put together its finest performance of the season on Wednesday night, and it led to a 17-13 win at Radford.
 
The Lancers (1-10, 1-3 Big South) were strong in all phases of the game. The offense spread the load behind hat tricks for Jordan Fitzgerald, Kendra DeFilippo, and four goals from Ellie Rumbaugh along with multi-goal games from Bailey Stratton and Alexandra Hirst.
 
Fitzgerald was a handful all day, chipping in three assists in addition to her three goals for a career best six points, double her previous career high. She added a career high seven draw controls as well
 
Meanwhile, Cybella Smith racked up more than 10 saves for a third straight match. The sophomore, one game after tying the program record with 20 saves against Wofford, was a brick wall in the cage. She had 17 saves, giving her 48 saves in her past three contests.
 
Radford (2-10, 0-4 Big South) had four goals from Madison Driscoll and three from Mady Cheney, but Smith helped bottle everything else up.
 
SCORING:
               1             2             3             4             FINAL
LWU      4             6             3             4             17
RU          3             3             3             4             13
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
 
Radford scored first on a Molly O'Brien goal, but the Lancers answered with three different goal scorers. Fitzgerald put the Lancers on the board, and then Elena Firestone gave the Lancers the lead. DeFilippo added one more with less than five minutes to go in the first.
 
Radford went on a 3-1 run to tie the match at four on a free position goal from Driscoll, but Longwood responded by scoring four straight over a five minute span. Rumbaugh started the scoring, but again, the run was keyed by four different players finding the back of the net.
 
Radford cut the lead to 8-6, but Longwood struck twice in the final two minutes of the half. Miranda Helfenbein scored first with 1:14 to go in the half off a feed from Fitzgerald before DeFilippo had her hat trick complete for a 10-6 lead with 25 seconds to go in the half.
 
After halftime, Longwood's defense, with a huge helping hand from Smith, helped stymie Radford's repeated rallies.
 
Every time the Highlanders started to rally, Smith shut the door, and the offense fed off of the activity from Fitzgerald and Rumbaugh on the other end.
 
The Lancers extended the lead to 16-10 with 4:14 to go on a goal from Hirst on the break, and Longwood salted the game away from that point. While Radford did make a run in the final three minutes, it was too late.

WHAT THEY SAID:

"I'm very proud of the team. They really worked hard for this one," said Longwood Head Coach Dwayne Hicks. "They played for each other, and that was the difference. I hope they use this game to see their potential."

"Cybella Smith had another monster game," Hicks added. "She really made saves when we needed a spark."

"Ellie Rumbaugh was making plays and showing leadership on the field," Hick added. "And it was great to win draws. Jordan Fitzgerald was making her presence felt and stepping up."
 
UP NEXT:
 
Longwood returns to action on the road at Furman on Saturday, April 12. The opening draw is set for 2 p.m., and the match will air on ESPN+.
 
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