FARMVILLE, Va. – Longwood has suffered its share of unhappy endings of late, coming out on the wrong end of two comeback tales in the past three weeks.
 
Saturday afternoon the Lancers wrote a different story.
 
Led by five goals from Taylor Blenckstone and an eight-point day from Kaitlin Luccarelli, Longwood (3-7) built a big lead and bounced back from a late East Carolina run to cruise to a 15-8 home win over the Pirates at Elizabeth Burger Jackson Field.


Blenckstone and Luccarelli led a high-powered Lancer offense by scoring a combined nine goals and assisting on six others. Those two teamed up for four consecutive goals late in the first half that extended Longwood's lead to five, and the Lancers led by at least that margin the rest of the way.
 
"It was a great win, and this was the game we really came together," said freshman goalkeeper Danielle Burke, who backed the defense with nine saves. "The defense was solid, and we really had each other's backs. That's what we've been talking about for a while, we've got to have each other's backs. It showed today. We played together as a whole team this time, and we came out on the right end because of it."
 
Saturday's bounceback win avenged two heartbreaking losses the Lancers suffered last week, including an 11-9 defeat at Old Dominion in which the Monarchs overcame a 9-6 lead with a 5-0 run over the final 7:16, and a 10-9 loss at Saint Francis in which the Lancers overcame an 8-0 deficit only to fall two go-ahead goals in the final 2:09.
 
Saturday the Lancers endured the start of a similar end-game run when East Carolina scored three straight goals, but this time the lessons learned in those two defeats took hold.
 
"Both of those games were about realizing what we can be, and this game was about showing who we actually are," Burke said. "ECU got those three goals, and we came together and said that's it, let's go back to how we were playing. Let's go hard and keep them out, and we did. We set a goal and we did it."
 
Longwood responded to East Carolina's 3-0 run to hold the Pirates (5-6) scoreless over the game's final 12 minutes and punctuated the victory with another Blenckstone goal with 2:30 remaining. Burke played hero multiple times during that end-game shutdown, registering four of her nine saves over that final 12 minutes.
 
"We've done a lot of talking since our last three losses in analyzing what went wrong, why it went wrong, and how we're not going to allow that to happen again," said head coach Elaine Jones. "They know they have to be active listeners, and they have to retain the information they've been given. That's been a huge sticking point, and we've lost games because they didn't do that. Today they did that, and they executed, so we're happy about that."
 
Six different Lancers scored goals Saturday, including Dana Joss, who scored twice, and Lexi Davis, Nicole Fordyce, Emma Johnson and Jade O'Connor, who all scored one apiece. Longwood matched a season high with four goals on free-position shots, two of which came from Luccarelli.
 
On the defensive end, team captain Jordan Howard corralled four draw controls, two ground balls and caused a pair of turnovers, while Davis also chipped in three ground balls and a pair of caused turnovers.
 
"It's good to end on a win going into conference," Jones said. "It gives us a lot of momentum, and that's how you want to end your non-conference schedule."
 
The win signals the end of non-conference play for the Lancers, who open the Big South portion of their schedule next Saturday at Big South preseason favorite High Point.
 
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