September 17, 2005

BOX SCORE

FARMVILLE, Va. -- Longwood University dropped a 2-1 women’s soccer decision to visiting Appalachian State University of the Southern Conference Saturday afternoon at Lancer Field in Farmville.  The Lancers dropped to 2-5 this season, while the Mountaineers won their fifth-straight match to improve to 5-1.  Longwood will play again on Friday, September 23, at Maryland-Baltimore County beginning at 7 p.m..

Against Appalachian State, the two teams were evenly-matched and battled to a scoreless first half.  The Mountaineers finally got on the board in the second half as Whitney Southard finished a cross from Dana Murphy into the back of the net at 55:30.  ASU extended the advantage to 2-0 at 78:10 when Casey Cleary scored on a header from a corner kick play, assisted again by Murphy.  
    
Longwood made things interesting when freshman Beth Shade/Mechanicsburg, Pa. (Cedar Cliff) tallied her first collegiate goal at 85:00, beating the keeper on a cross from redshirt freshman Lauren Lawson/Stafford (North Stafford).  It was Lawson’s first collegiate assist as well.  The Lancers had a couple of potential game-tying attempts over the final minutes, but could not convert.
    
“Appalachian State handed us one of our worst losses last year (5-0), so today was a positive in that, one year later, we proved to be competitive against a very strong program,” said 12th-year head coach Todd Dyer ‘93.  “After a scoreless first half, I thought we were in a good position, but they came out harder than us in the second and got us back on our heels.  Two goals later, we finally started to press the issue and scored one of our best goals of the year in terms of build up and the finish.  
    
“In the end, we just have to stay positive and use this game as a learning tool to make sure that we're improving and moving in the right direction.  I do think that will be the case.”
    
Appalachian State took a 15-10 advantage in shots, and had a 4-2 edge in corner kicks.  Sophomore keeper Anne Whitmore/Charlottesville (Western Albemarle) played the entire 90 minutes in front of the net for the Lancers, yielding the two goals while making five saves.  Elizabeth McCutcheon played the full 90 minutes in goal for ASU, allowing the one goal with two saves.