FARMVILLE, Va. – Longwood fought valiantly against the top-ranked team in the country, but couldn't contain the Tar Heel's pressure. The Lancers managed to hold North Carolina off the scoreboard for nearly 17 minutes before finally caving to the Heels' unrelenting attack.
"Having the No. 1 team in the country come play on your home field is always a huge challenge," said head coach
Iain Byers. "For the first 20-ish minutes, we stuck to our gameplan and we played well. I think the pressure finally told, but there were definitely some positives."
As expected, North Carolina (9-2) controlled action for the majority of the evening, rarely giving Longwood (4-9) a chance to catch its breath. The Lancers matched the challenge over the opening 20 minutes, looking more than up to the task of defending the Tar Heels.
UNC finally broke through in the 17th minute, as Loren Shealy raced into the circle and flicked a shot into the upper-left corner. The Tar Heels would tack on two more goals before the break making the halftime score 3-0.
The second half began with a torrential downpour and an early North Carolina goal. Longwood managed to regain its footing and again showed the ability to mark the Heels. The continued pressure was too much though, as UNC piled on three goals in nine minutes to reach the final tally of 7-0.
Longwood threatened the goal twice in the second half,
Jennifer Burris spun a shot towards the cage that was saved by Shannon Johnson. The look was easily the Lancers best chance of the evening and minutes later, a pair of Longwood corners afforded the blue and white one final chance.
Kate Harvey took the second corner and drove a shot low, only to be denied by a diving keeper.
The Tar Heels outshot Longwood 24-5 on the evening and sophomore keeper
Lauren Bernard had another busy night notching nine saves.
"We saw a lot of things we worked on," said Byers. "It's always going to be tough [to lose], but we're happy with a sign of things we saw out here. We're going to strive for five games and five wins, which would really help us have a good season in the end."
Longwood returns to the turf Monday, October 13 for a 3 p.m. matchup with former NorPac rival Davidson at the Athletics Complex.Â
Â
