The result didn’t live up to their expectations, but there were plenty of positives to learn from the Longwood women’s soccer team’s season opener on Sunday night.

The Lancers (0-1) did almost everything right against a top-class Loyola Maryland team, but the Greyhounds (1-1) took advantage of a golden opportunity less than five minutes before the end and beat Longwood 1-0.

The Lancers hit the crossbar twice, but Loyola’s Baylee DeSmit made the difference with a goal against the run in the 86th minute. DeSmit scored a breakaway goal to send the visitors home with a win despite tremendous pressure from Longwood in the final 45 minutes.

“As proud as I am of our team’s performance tonight and the quality of our soccer, I’m disappointed with the result,” said Longwood head coach Todd Dyer. “I would say we deserved more, but the reality is we didn’t capitalize on the opportunities we created and made a defensive error late in the game. That hurts, but it’s part of our journey together and we’ll use it to get better.”

Longwood had more shots on goal than Loyola during the game (17:12) and after halftime (11:4), creating enormous pressure.

The team had the best chances in the 82nd minute.^and Minute after a corner. Claire Schultz shot at the crossbar and Emma Jones almost hammered the rebound into the goal, but was then stopped by Loyola’s Brigid Mulholland from close range.

First semester Taylor Hoag She also nearly gave Longwood a goal in the second half when she played a ball into the goal that took a deflection, but Mulholland fired the ball wide of the post.

Meghan Piazza and Hoag led Longwood by four strokes each, and Peyton Curney three added.

The Lancers now head to six straight away games, starting with a trip to Richmond on Thursday with kickoff scheduled for 5 p.m.