OXFORD, Ohio – After eight years in the conference and four trips to the league semifinals, Longwood field hockey will finally play for a Mid-American Conference Championship.
 
Behind a fourth-quarter, game-winning goal from four-time All-MAC defender Luna Lopez and their seventh shutout of the season, the No. 3 seed Lancers (9-6) upset No. 2 seed Kent State 1-0 in the MAC semifinals Friday afternoon at the Miami Field Hockey Complex.
 
The win propels Longwood into Saturday's championship game for the first time where they will face reigning MAC champion, tournament host and top-seeded Miami at 2 p.m.

"I am immensely proud of this group of young women who have learned every step of the way this season and grown every time they've been presented an opportunity to do so," said Longwood head coach Iain Byers, who has led the Lancers to a MAC record of 25-22 since joining the conference in 2014. 

"This is also a great recognition for all the Longwood teams that have gone before them. We would not be in this position without the advancements and sacrifices those people made. Even though this team is reaping the benefits, everyone in the Longwood field hockey family should be proud."
 
Cementing the program's milestone win was Lopez, who broke open the tightly-contested semifinal with her third career game-winner to snap a scoreless deadlock at the 51:13 mark. The goal was the senior defender's team-leading eighth of the season and came on an assist from classmate Jamie Wright, which was her team-leading sixth this year. That goal came on the second of back-to-back corners and ricocheted into the net after deflecting off of a Kent State defender's stick. 
 
After the goal, the Lancers survived an end-game onslaught from the Golden Flashes (13-4), which included a shot from Helena Cambra Soler that hit the post with less than three minutes remaining. But even after Kent State pulled its goal with 2:16 to play, the Lancers leaned on their staunch backfield – anchored by Lopez, fellow All-MAC first-team defender Ana Paula Lazaro and the senior trio of defenders Kolbey Donahue and Rio Weber and goalkeeper Madison Nuckols – to fight off the comeback bid and secure their first-ever MAC semifinal win.
 
That backfield unit limited Kent State to just one shot on goal for the entire game, which Nuckols stopped to earn her seventh shutout of the season. That differential came in stark contrast to Kent State's 3-2 win over Longwood in the regular season, in which the Golden Flashes pounded nine shots on goal in a one-goal victory.

The win represents a long sought-after step forward in the MAC for the Lancers, who have finished in the conference's top three in five of the past six seasons behind perennial championship contenders Miami and Kent State. Friday's win makes Longwood the first team to defeat Kent State in the MAC semifinals since 2013, snapping the Golden Flashes' streak of six consecutive championship game appearances. 
 
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