FARMVILLE, Va. – UNC Asheville’s men’s soccer team scored first against Longwood, Saturday night, but was unable to come away with the victory as the Lancers won the match, 3-1.

The Bulldogs (3-12-1, 2-5 Big South) struck first, as sophomore Izaiah Vignali notched his second goal of the season on a strike from the top of the box in the 25th minute on an assist from Noe Varner.

The Lancers would answer, however, as they nailed the equalizer in the 29th minute and then scored less than two minutes later to take a 2-1 lead in the match, and that margin would stand at the half.

Asheville’s first shot came in the 19th minute as a header attempt from Dino Dziergas went wide in the 19th minute off a corner kick. The Bulldogs had two consecutive corners a couple minutes later, but were unable to capitalize.

In the second half, the Bulldogs had a pair of corner kicks in the 52nd minute, leading to a shot by Ben Katt that was blocked. Dziergas had a shot in the 60th minute which was blocked, but Colin Daughtry’s attempt of the rebound went wide.

Katt had another attempt in the 71st minute, forcing the first save of the evening from the Longwood keeper. Two minutes later, the Lancers added a third goal to their total. Katt put another shot on frame right after the goal, but was unable to score. Daughtry had another attempt in the 86th minute, but it went wide.

The Bulldogs will close out the 2019 regular season at home, Wednesday, when it hosts Presbyterian in a 6 p.m. contest.

“We had a great start to it, and (Izaiah) Vignali was fantastic tonight,” head coach Mathes Mennell said. “We asked him to be very goal dangerous and he did that and got the goal. Longwood was playing for their season and did a very good job to make it 2-1.

“We didn’t get a whole lot of bounces tonight, but I’m a big believer that you make your own bounces. That’s the Big South: it’s a conference with a lot of parity. It’s a frustrating result, but now we’re on to PC.”