LYNCHBURG, Va. – The Longwood men's soccer hits the road to face Liberty Tuesday at 7 p.m., at Osborne Stadium on ESPN+.
 

LAST TIME OUT

• Longwood dropped a 2-1 decision to Wofford on Friday at home with all three goals coming after halftime.
• Wofford's Nathan Simes scored twice — in the 52nd and 73rd minutes — before the Lancers got on the board in the 87th.
• On the Longwood goal, Ezrah Serralde's blasted a low shot the left corner of the net from just outside the box after Aaron Bruening directed the ball into Serralde's path following a David Ambaek long ball from the midfield stripe.
• It was Serralde's first career goal at Longwood.
   

SERIES HISTORY

• Liberty holds an 18-5-7 lead in the all-time series with Longwood.
• The teams played to a 2-2 draw in Farmville in the Lancers' home opener on Aug. 26, 2024 with goals by Ethan Stevenson and Aaron Asamoah.
• Longwood's last victory against the Flames was a 1-0 win on Oct. 19, 2021 in Lynchburg. Tosin Ayokunle scored in the 73rd minute on a net-front deflection.
• The series dates to a Sept. 27, 1977 Longwood road win, the Lancers' first-ever win in program history.
   

LANCERS AGAINST THE OVC

• Longwood is 8-22-9 all-time against teams currently part of the Ohio Valley Conference.
• Outside of the Lancers' five wins against Liberty, Longwood is also 3-2-2 against Houston Christian, which was part of the Atlantic Soccer Conference with Longwood from 2008-11.

SCOUTING LIBERTY

• Liberty is 3-0-1 with wins over Regent (9-0, Aug. 21), USC Upstate (3-1, Aug. 24) and at VMI (3-0, Sept. 4).
• Sam Farmer leads the Flames with three goals and two assists fro eight points while starting three of the first four matches.
• Tyler Beck has seen all of the action in the Liberty nets, compiling a an 0.50 goals-against average and .846 save percentage with 11 saves and a pair of clean sheets.
• Liberty was picked to finish fourth in the eight-team OVC with forward Aidan Morrison selected as a preseason player to watch in the league.

• Second-year Longwood head coach Paul Gilbert played four years as a goalkeeper at Liberty, graduating in 2011. 
• He posted 15 clean sheets in 45 career matches and was named 2007 Big South Freshman of the Year and to the all-Big South second team.

LANCERS IN THE NCAA RANKINGS

• The Lancers are currently 16th in the country in shots per game at 16.33 through matches of Sept. 7 with Jose Coutinho third individually averaging 5.33.
• Longwood is 40th nationally in assists per game, averaging 2.0 while being 86th in total assists with six.
• The Lancers are 57th in points per game at 5.33 while Brando Bedolla is 43rd individually at 1.67.

LANCERS PICKED THIRD IN BIG SOUTH POLL

• Longwood was selected to finish third in the Big South preseason coaches poll, announced on Aug. 13
• The team received 41 points in the voting to finish behind just High Point and Gardner-Webb, which earned 62 and 55 points, respectively. Those two schools split the first-place votes with 2024 regular-season champion Panthers garnering six and the Runnin' Bulldogs picking up the remaining two nods for the top spot.
• The third-place tag for Longwood represents a tie for the highest-ever finish in the Big South preseason poll, matching the 2022 squad.

NEXT UP

• Longwood returns home to host nationally ranked West Virginia Friday at  5 p.m., on ESPN+.
• The Mountaineers won the only meeting between the teams Oct. 3, 2004, 3-0, in Morgantown, W.Va.