FARMVILLE, Va. - Behind 12 stops by goalkeeper Imani West and four players scoring at least three goals, Longwood climbed to a 16-9 victory over Mount St. Mary's to extend their win streak to three games Saturday afternoon at the Athletics Complex.

"Today was a great team win," said Longwood head coach Elaine Jones. "We had multiple scorers with hat tricks, and Imani and our defense came up with a number of big stops. We worked a lot on our settled offense and defense this week in practice, so we were really pleased to see the team execute so well on both ends of the field."

West's 12-save performance helped Longwood (3-3) hold the Mountaineers to a season low in scoring by a visiting opponent this season, while guiding the Lancers to their first three-game win streak since late last season. Along with the guidance provided by their keeper, Katie McHugh (4), Sarah Butler (3), Cassie Angeles (3) and Madison Stair (3) combined for 13 goals to overcome a two-goal first-half deficit.

The Lancers took control of the game in the final four minutes of the first half, scoring three unanswered goals capped by Butler's score with 17 seconds remaining that gave them a 6-5 advantage entering halftime. Prior to the go-ahead goal, Angeles cut the Mountaineer lead to one goal after being set up by her senior teammate McHugh for a second time in the game. McHugh later evened the score on the pass from Andie DeCelis to set up Butler's second game-winner in two games.

Building on its momentum-gaining run, Longwood's leading scorers Butler and McHugh each tallied their second goal of the day in the first five minutes of the second half to extend the lead to 8-5 coming out of the locker room.

Mount St. Mary's ended Longwood's string of five straight goals when midfielder Sammie Knapp made a move to bring the Mountaineers to within two at the 36-minute point.

However, the Mountaineer goal could not slow the streaking Lancers for long, as Katie McHugh scored her fourth goal of the day on a free position attempt just 30 seconds later to spark another string of four straight goals for Longwood. McHugh then set up a Madison Stair goal on the very next play for her third assist of the day.

During that stretch freshman defender Angeles notched her third goal of the day after another fine set up from the sophomore DeCelis. With the goal, Angeles tied her career-high set in the team's last outing less than a week ago.

Despite back-to-back goals from Nicole Lantuh and Sammie Knapp with 14 minutes to go, Mt. St. Mary's was never able to pull within closer than four the rest of the way.

On the other end, Longwood answered with another three-goal stretch, which included the captain Butler's team-leading 18^th goal of the season that extended their lead to seven goals in the game's final 8 minutes. The goal marked Butler's final score of the day and pushed her streak of hat tricks to five consecutive games.

After trailing Longwood 1-0 to start the game, the Mountaineers found the net for three straight goals, including two from Molly Morris, for their biggest lead of the day. Morris converted two free position shots and Kelley Maloney added another free position goal to give Mount St. Mary's a 3-1 lead with 22 minutes to go in the first half.

Mountaineer junior captain Knapp led her team in scoring with three goals as part of four Mountaineers to notch at least two goals. Knapp headed two-goal efforts from Maloney, Morris and Lantuh, as the group scored all nine Mount St. Mary's goals.

In her sixth career start, West faced 29 shots in her third straight win and guided the Lancers to their highest margin of victory this season. In addition to her 12 saves, the sophomore goalkeeper tied with Decelis for the team lead with five groundballs on the day.

"I think we just worked hard as a unit," said West, who was one save shy of tying her career-high. "There was a lot of communicating going on between us, which helped us get to the level we played at today. We improved a lot on our hedging and slides that we worked on in practice, and everyone was hustling throughout the game."

With that great team communication on the defensive end, the Lancers made 20 stops on the day which helped give the Lancers the advantage in extra possessions. Longwood capitalized on defensive stops to finish with 24 groundballs and 19 clears which led to the squad's 38-29 shot advantage on the day.

Meanwhile, McHugh finished with her second four-goal, three-assist effort in the past three games for Longwood. The senior attack leads the team in assists with 13 and ranks second in goals with 15 on the season.

"It's been a transition for me to play behind the goal," said McHugh. "But I'm getting more comfortable back there each game. Overall, I'm happy playing back there and feel like I'm helping my team be successful."

As a team becoming known for strong second-half finishes, Longwood totaled 10 second-half goals at home for the second time this season. Three of those 10 goals came off Longwood's free position shots in the period as the team converted 4-of-8 of their attempts on the day.

"I think overall we did a great job at finishing when we had the ball in the circle. Our coaches really helped up out this week to prepare us for this goalkeeper and what we were going to see from their defense," said McHugh.

Before the ten-goal second half, the Lancers were held to six goals on 16 shots by a Mt. St. Mary's defense led by goalkeeper Steph Rurkowski. Despite being credited with the loss, Rurkowski fought to keep her team in the game with a game-high 16 saves.

One factor in Longwood's three-game win streak has been McHugh and Butler opening up scoring opportunities for their teammates. While the senior duo accounted for one-third of the Longwood scoring, five other Lancers were able to find the net in today's game.

"When some of us are being face guarded or taken out of the game, others are stepping up and have become more comfortable doing so. I think everyone does a great job of encouraging one another to fill those roles without hesitation," McHugh said.

Longwood will ride its current success into Berkeley, Calif., for the first of two games this week in its matchup against Cal on Tuesday, Feb. 8. The game is set to begin at 3 p.m.

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