No. 15 Virginia Tech Thrashes Longwood, 18-3

Jack Brizendine

February 26, 2021

BLACKSBURG, Va. — With 10:23 left in the first half, Virginia Tech freshman attacker Whitney Liebler darted towards the goal, veered right and flung in a behind the back goal into the back left side of the net.

The goal gave Liebler her fourth goal of the day after not scoring in the Hokies’ first two games. She went on to score one more in the second half and added an assist.

Liebler’s performance was key in No. 15 Virginia Tech’s (2-1, 0-1 ACC) rout of Longwood (0-2) on Wednesday afternoon, 18-3.

Virginia Tech jumped out to a big lead early on, with four goals in the first ten minutes of the game from Liebler, Paige Petty, and Reilly Reed.

The Lancers answered with a goal from Emma Johnson to cut the Hokies’ lead to three.

Virginia Tech put its foot on the gas following the Longwood goal, and rode a 5-0 scoring run to finish the half courtesy of goals from Liebler, Sarah Lubnow, Grace Nelson, and Caroline Allen. The Hokies owned a 9-1 lead at halftime.

Virginia Tech continued to dominate in the second half, scoring three goals in the first six minutes after the break.

The Hokies fired back with six unanswered goals, including two from sophomore Grace New.

Longwood scored the final goal of the day with 1:46 left in the game, but the contest was all but finished by that point.

Sophie Student, Allen, Liebler, and New all scored their first goals of the season in the win. For New and Student, those scores were also their firsts as Hokies.

It was all-around domination for Virginia Tech as the Hokies out-shot the Lancers 47-8 in addition to forcing 7 turnovers.

Virginia Tech returns to the field on Saturday at 3 p.m. in Charlottesville against No. 12 Virginia. The game will be televised on the ACC Network.