MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The class of Big 12 women's soccer was on full display Sunday as No. 5 West Virginia blasted 41 shots on the Longwood goal and shut out the Lancers 4-0 at Dick Dlesk Stadium.
The reigning Big 12 champion Mountaineers (7-1-0) got two goals from conference scoring leader Michaela Abam and took a 3-0 lead within the first 25 minutes to cruise to their sixth consecutive shutout. The 4-0 win was the NCAA-leading seventh shutout of the year for West Virginia, which has given up just two goals and 11 shots on goal in eight games this season.
"If that team is number five in the country, I can't even imagine how good the four in front of them must be," said Longwood head coach
Todd Dyer. "Today we saw another level of soccer, and that can only help us."
The Mountaineers entered the contest leading the Big 12 in goals scored (20) and fewest goals allowed (2) and ranked among the top 20 nationally in both categories. They carried that full-field dominance to a Longwood team making its first trip to Morgantown, holding Longwood (3-4-0) without a shot thanks to a defense led by Canadian National Team members Kadeisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrenc.
On the other side of the field, West Virginia pounded 16 shots on the Lancer net. That high-volume shooting effort yielded West Virginia's third straight multi-goal game with Abam scoring two, and Kailey Utley and Carla Portillo scoring one each. Longwood senior goalkeeper
Hailey Machen managed a career-high eight saves but surrendered four goals to a surging Mountaineer squad that has scored 14 times in the past three games.
Sophomore
Maria Kirby replaced Machen in goal for the final 27:33 and stopped all four shots she faced, but West Virginia's pressure at the other end of the field kept Longwood off the board.
The loss marks only the second time this season the Lancers have allowed more than one goal in a game. The other multi-goal allowance came at the hands of No. 10 Virginia Tech, which scored twice inside the final five minutes of the Sept. 2 matchup to win, 4-2.
"We did some good things today, primarily defensively, and we responded better in the second half than we did to start the game," Dyer said. "If we apply what we learned on both sides of the ball today, we will only get better moving forward."
Sunday's loss comes in the fourth game of a five-game road stretch for the Lancers, who round out nearly three consecutive weeks of away games next Sunday, Sept. 20, at Richmond. That will be the final non-conference game before the Lancers open Big South play at home against High Point on Sept. 23 at 7 p.m. at the Longwood Athletics Complex.
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