Lady Flames defeat Hoyas
Liberty University women’s field hockey earned a 4-1 win over Georgetown University Sept. 1., with freshman Sarah Gipe leading the way with two goals. Helen Doolittle and Abbey Basom also scored for Liberty in their first home game of the season.
The Lady Flames pressured the Hoyas from start to finish, winning 14 penalty corners while the Hoyas only had four.
History — The Lady Flames won its first ever home opener against Georgetown. Photo credit: Jake Mitchell
“Our press today was what worked really well,” Lady Flames head coach Jodi Murphy said. “We really stepped up and took away some of their options and tried to make them uncomfortable. We tried to show them something that they haven’t seen so far this season, and it worked well.”
The game started with Liberty scoring an early goal three minutes in. Liberty’s Ashlee Kurlock intercepted a pass back to the goal, and a series of shots and rebounds allowed Gipe to score the first goal of the game.
The second goal came 18 minutes into the game. Liberty’s Absom catch a long pass and shot past the goalie to make the score 2-0. The Hoyas seemed to push back after the halftime break when Georgetown’s Keating scored a goal off Annie Wilson’s pass in the 43rd minute.
The Lady Flames put the pressure on again as the last 23 minutes of the game saw 10 penalty corners in front of the Hoya goal. Two of the penalty corners resulted in goals for Liberty, with Gipes scoring her second goal 53 minutes into the game and Doolittle scoring her first in the 54th minute.
The Lady Flames had more than just the win to celebrate, as Friday’s match was the debut of the Lady Flame’s first international player, Natalie Barr.
“I’m really excited about Natalie [Barr] and her first Division I game here in the States,” Murphy said. “She played well for us, and she played steady.”
Barr is a native of Lurgan, Northern Ireland, and has represented Ulster and Ireland in the U21, U18 and U16 levels. She joined the women’s field hockey team after transferring to Liberty from Lurgan College.
Barr is part of the 12 freshmen players that were recruited this season and will join nine sophomore players in the team’s second season in the NCAA Division I.
“We’re still young, but we have a lot of energy, and we have expectations to do well,” Murphy said. “We want to do well in the NorPac Tournament at the end of the season, but we’re really trying to take one game at a time. The girls have a lot of discipline and a lot of energy, and that’s really good for success.”
The Lady Flames will play the University of Pennsylvania Sept. 8, 11 a.m. at the hockey fields located on East Campus.