Lynchburg College’s Allie Weir sets NCAA D-III field hockey scoring record

One would have thought scoring a goal was nothing new for Lynchburg College field hockey player Allie Weir.

After all, she scored 29 goals as a freshman, 36 as a sophomore, 35 as a junior and had already scored 20 goals in 11 games this season for the Hornets. But her fourth goal that came in Saturday’s match against Sweet Briar College on Shellenberger Field — the 21st of her senior season — brought both smiles and tears to faces of the Lynchburg College field hockey community as Weir became the Division III all-time leading goal scorer.

“It was a little more emotional than I thought it would be, but with everyone here it was a fun day,” Weir said. “This is just like the icing on the cake with a cherry on top.”

Weir’s fourth goal against the Vixens gave her 121 goals for her career, breaking the 33-year-old record of 120 goals that was set by Priscilla Wade of Bates College in 1976.

“It was a really exciting day,” Hornets coach Enza Steele said. “(Allie) works hard and does everything you ask her to do.”

While it was far from a done deal that Weir would get the record-breaking goal in a home game, let alone homecoming, Weir gave herself an honest shot with a pair of goals off of penalty strokes in the first half. She added the third goal 12 minutes into the second half on an assist by Erin Funkhouser.

The record-breaking goal came in the 55th minute of the match on an assist from Johanna Agustin and she scored it in much the same way she has the majority of goals in her career. She planted herself in front of the cage and won the mad scramble for the ball when it was played across the face of the goal.

After the goal, Sweet Briar called timeout to allow Steele to present Weir with the ball she broke the record with at centerfield as the crowd, teammates and family members celebrated the historic moment. Her parents, Patty and Chris Weir, made the trip from Richmond as well as some other family members.

But no family member had a better seat than younger sister and Hornets’ junior teammate, Jenny Weir.

“It’s been awesome,” Jenny said.” I knew she could do it. She’s been like this since she was in high school. She can just find the goal. I love playing with her. When you think about saying someone is the greatest goal scorer ever is pretty incredible. I don’t know what I’m going to do without her (next year).” 

The Hornets defeated Sweet Briar 12-0 and improved to 9-2 overall and 3-0 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. Weir finished the game with four goals and two assists. She also broke the ODAC’s record for points with her 10-point effort. Weir needs just 25 more points to break the Division III points record of 297, which is held by Danae Chambers.

Field hockey players get two points for a goal and one point for an assist.

LC has eight regular-season games plus however many ODAC and NCAA tournament games the Hornets play for Weir to get the record.

Though breaking the record was a special moment, now both Weir and the Hornets can return to the business of winning games.

“Our team goal is to make it farther than we did in last year’s NCAAs (the Sweet 16) and Allie is not going to stop working until we get there,” Steele said. “Allie is a great person and has had a great career, we just hope it continues for four more weeks.”

“I’ve still got the NCAAs to look forward too,” Weir said. “We just want to make it farther than we did last year.”

Not to be lost in Weir’s record breaking performance was the effort of Vixens’ goalie Madeline Wilson, who was credited with 33 saves. Sweet Briar is 1-8 overall and 0-3 in the ODAC.