FARMVILLE, Va. – It took a top-25 team to finally deal Longwood field hockey its first home loss of the season.
Backed by two goals from Bethany Dykema, No. 12 Liberty (12-2) grinded out a 3-1 win over Longwood to snap the Lancers' home unbeaten streak at six games Sunday afternoon at Elizabeth Burger Jackson Field.
The Flames entered the game as the nation's top scoring team but, Longwood (8-5) became only the sixth team in 15 games to hold Liberty to just three goals. All three of those scores came on penalty corners but were enough to extend Liberty's winning streak to nine games.
Longwood's MAC-leading defense held Liberty's NCAA-leading offense in check for the majority of the first half and entered the break trailing 1-0. The Flames finally broke through with a penalty corner early in the third quarter and on Maddie Holser's deflection of Jodie Conolly's shot to run that lead to 2-0 before the Lancers responded with a penalty-corner of their own off the stick of
Ana Paula Lazaro to cut that deficit back to 2-1.
However, the Flames went back to their set-piece playbook and added a fourth-quarter insurance goal on another penalty corner, which Dykema stuck in from the top of the arc on a pass from Reagan Underwood.
"Like [assistant coach
Laura Powell] said, we made them earn everything they got," said Longwood's three-time All-MAC first-team defender
Luna Lopez. "We were smart about what we were doing. We executed our game plan – the press, the outlet, our defense. We attacked really well too. The corner we scored on, we executed well. There were a lot of really good things we did.
"Liberty's head coach congratulated us at the end of the game, and that's a really good compliment from them. We have been confident in ourselves this season, but hearing that is something good to take with us going forward."
The loss is Longwood's first at home since an April 12 defeat to Mid-American Conference rival Ohio this past spring. It is also only the Lancers' second loss in the past six games, interrupting a late-season surge that has seen them outscore their past six opponents 20-7 with multi-goal wins over Saint Francis (3-1), Central Michigan (7-0), Davidson (4-0) and Appalachian State (3-0).
Liberty, which leads the country with 4.71 goals per game, became only the second team to defeat Longwood during that span, joining perennial MAC powerhouse Kent State, which edged out the Lancers 3-2 on Oct. 8.
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Now the Lancers will turn their sights back to conference play with a crucial home finale against rival Ball State upcoming this Friday, Oct. 22. That game will tip off at 1 p.m. following the team's pregame Senior Day ceremony.
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