Soccer Peppers Longwood With Shots In Home Loss

Sunday, September 20

Robins Stadium (Richmond, Va.)

4:00 PM

University of Richmond

2-6

Longwood

4-4

Longwood

Richmond

09/20/2015 | Women's Soccer

Box Score

By: Richmond Athletics

Richmond women's soccer played another close game, but lost on a lone goal in a 1-0 home loss to Longwood Sunday at Robins Stadium. Longwood improves to 4-4, while the Spiders dip to 2-6 overall.

The teams played a scoreless first half, with the Spiders holding a 9-2 shooting margin at the break. Longwood keeper made Maria Kirby five of her 11 saves in the game in that opening period. The 11 saves tie the school record since joining Division I less than 10 seasons ago.

The Lancers caught the Spider defense off guard to start the second half, as Sydney Wallace slipped a pass between two defenders to Amber Gustafson, who hammered a shot to the far post past UR keeper Katie Brennan (Fairfield, Connecticut) for the lone goal of the game just 39 seconds into the period. It was the first of her career.

“It was a frustrating day,” said Richmond head coach Peter Albright. “Longwood had a very organized gameplan. They sat in and they were difficult to get behind and though we had a lot of possession and a lot of shots, we didn't really threaten the goal. We didn't respond in a productive way and the game got a little frantic.”

The Spiders took 10 more shots in the final period, but could not connect with the back of the net, as Kirby answered every test presented to her for the clean sheet.

Kirby improved to 2-1 on the season, while Brennan dropped to 1-4. Brennan made two saves on six Lancers shots. Brennan has allowed just five goals in five games this season, for a 1.0 goals-against average. Richmond has not scored in three of her four season losses.

Senior tri-captain Ashley Riefner (Mechanicsville, Virginia / Atlee HS) and sophomore Lexi Prillaman (Magnolia, Delaware) had four shots each for the Spiders.

The Spiders will play next in their opening Atlantic 10 Conference game, at home on Thursday, October 1 in a 7:30 kickoff against Duquesne.

NOTES: Richmond has now been held scoreless for four-straight games, the longest stretch since in the non-conference portion of the 2013 schedule… Longwood has played in seven shutout games (4-3 record in those games) while the Spiders have also played in seven shutout contests (2-4 mark in shutouts.)