FARMVILLE, Va. – With the score sitting at 3-2 after the Lancers cut into Pennsylvania's second-half lead, the Quakers responded with furor, tallying twice in a two-minute span to fend off Longwood's comeback effort Sunday afternoon.
 
Alexa Hoover, Penn's leading scorer in 2014, had been held quite by the Lancers for 50 minutes. With Longwood surging and the game hanging in the balance, Hoover put the Quakers in firm control with back-to-back goals just a minute and 58 seconds apart.
 
"There was probably a 10-minute period where we let things slip away," said head coach Iain Byers. "I think we're a little disappointed in the finish, we thought we should have competed a bit better and stayed in the game longer."
 
The two goals robbed Longwood of its building momentum after Hollie MacDonald rifled home her second goal of the day to make the score 3-2 in favor of Penn with 20 minutes to play. MacDonald found a loose ball in the top of the circle and stung a reverse shot into the bottom right corner to cut the lead to a single goal.
 
The Lancers pushed forward and seemingly had the momentum until a turnover led to a quick Penn counterattack. Elizabeth Hitti, who scored Penn's third goal of the game, dribbled into the right side of the circle and crossed the ball into the middle where Hoover sat waiting and tipped the ball up and over Longwood keeper Lauren Bernard. Just like that, the Quakers were back on the front foot.
 
Penn poured forward and capitalized on a scramble in the box as Karen Seid found the loose ball in a crowd and sent it across the face of goal to Hoover, who slotted it home to seal the game. Within four minutes, the score ran from 3-2 to 5-2 as the Quakers pulled away.
 
The day started well enough for the Lancers as after Penn took an early one-goal advantage, MacDonald ran onto the end of a long pass, dribbled into the right side of the circle and leveled the score with a beautiful finish to the far post.
 
MacDonald's two-goal performance pushes the senior to the top of the scoring column for the Lancers in 2015.
 
Penn finished the game with a 21-7 advantage in shots along with a 7-4 edge in penalty corners.
 
For the Lancers, the theme continues to be improvement heading toward the Mid-American Conference slate.
 
"It hasn't been the best start to the season from a results point of view," Byers said, "but we'll continue to build into the season. There's a lot of time left and we'll go from here to Towson and we'll be pumped up and ready to go."
 
The Lancers will return to action Friday in their first road game at Towson. Game time is set for 6 p.m. against the Tigers.    
 
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