Lynchburg Hornets Won 22

While the University of Virginia was running to a 24-win season, another Virginia women’s collegiate team was winning 22.

A potent offense led by a junior named Dessi Dupuy fired the Lynchburg Hornets to 22 wins playing a couple of divisions below the Cavaliers. No other Lynchburg women’s team had ever won 22 in a season.

The Hornets lost only twice in 2013. Both times to the Emory University Eagles. The last one came in the second round of the NCAA Division III playoffs. It was 2-1 and it ended Lynchburg’s season.

And what a season it was. After losing 3-1 to Emory in Atlanta on Sept. 15 in the fifth game of the season, the Hornets ran off 17 consecutive wins.

[show_disconnected][show_to accesslevel=’Subscriber’] They were obviously unbeaten in Old Dominion Athletic Conference play, and swept the ODAC tournament title by winning three straight by a 20-1 margin. The title match was a 2-0 shutout of rival Washington & Lee, the #2 team in the league.

It was their fourth consecutive conference championship. The Hornets have not lost to an ODAC opponent since 2009.

“This is my first group of seniors that has ever won four in a row,” said lynchburg head coach Dr. Todd Olsen.

But against Emory they came up a little short, even though they started well taking the lead in the fourth minute of play. Senior Jessie Gonzalez finished a free kick from Rachel Sadowski for the score.

But it’s not how you start, but how you finish, and Emory came back with a pair of unanswered goals for the win. The game-winner was a penalty kick by Clare Mullins just before halftime.

Dupuy, a hometown girl who played high school soccer at EC Glass, led the Hornets and the conference in points and goals, scoring 23 times and assisting on seven other goals. That was good for 53 points.

As a team, Lynchburg had the country’s second-leading scoring offense (4.63 goals per game). Dupuy, who has scored over 20 goals in each of her first three collegiate seasons, now has 77 for her career.

“I was a defender in college, but I always liked high-power offense,” Olsen said after the conference tourney. “We definitely have scorers on this team and a lot of balance.

Dupuy was named ODAC Player of the Year, as well as Virginia All-State Women’s College Division Player of the Year by the Virginia Sports Information Directors (VaSID).

She was also named NSCAA Division III first team All-American.

They may as well name the Coach of the Year award for Olsen, as Lynch-burg’s veteran coach grabbed that VaSID COY honor for the seventh consecutive season.

Sadowski, a senior from Lewes, Del., was named first team NSCAA All-America for the second straight year. She helped anchor the stingy Lynchburg defense that allowed only 13 goals in 24 matches.

Sadowski, one of seven seniors on the Lynchburg roster, has also proven to be strong in the classroom. She earned the All-America double by also being named NSCAA first team College Division Scholar All-America ……for the second straight year.

An environmental science major, she takes a cumulative GPA of 3.97 into her final semester at Lynchburg.

The Hornets ended their season ranked #17 in the final D-III national poll. They were better than that! But in the end, they proved not to be better than one team…….the Emory Eagles.