Men’s Lacrosse Prepares For Upcoming Season

The Liberty Flames lacrosse team walked off the field April 23 of last season with downcast expressions, the evening heat in John Springs, Georgia, causing perspiration to run down their faces. The Flames valiant effort in the SouthEastern Lacrosse Conference playoffs fell short when they were defeated 13-8 by the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

As the Flames look ahead to the rapidly approaching 2018 season, expectations for success are higher than they were last year. The Flames entered last season with 14 freshmen on their 33-man roster.

“We had a lot of freshmen last year,” sophomore defenseman Grayson Ryne said. “But now we’re all sophomores playing together so we’ll see how it goes.”

The Flames are attempting to improve off last year’s 8-7 record. Flames head coach Kyle McQuillan understands that he has a talented squad in front of him.

“The good thing about this roster is that we don’t have a lot of weak links,” McQuillan said. “We’ve got guys who can play in a lot of different places for us and have success in a lot of different ways.”

On both defense and offense, the Flames have impressive talent that excites McQuillan.

“Guys like Win McCeaver as a junior and Ian White are kind of two staples on the defensive side of the ball. They don’t get much love because they’re not scoring the goals,” McQuillan said. “I kind of joke and say if you don’t remember a guy on defense, it usually means he had a good game.”

“Carter Elliot was a freshman when he came in and played probably a bigger role than we anticipated him having as a freshman, and I think this year will really be his coming out party,” McQuillan said. “I think pound for pound (he’s) probably one of the best lacrosse players in this country. I think this year he’s really going to have an opportunity to show that.”

The Flames talent will be tested this season when some of the county’s elite lacrosse squads come to Lynchburg.

“The two games that I think stand out the most to me are Colorado and Arizona State,” sophomore midfielder Elliot said. “I think it’s the first time that they’ve played here, so that’s the first time that we’ve hosted some of those top 10 teams at Liberty. That’s really exciting and kind of nerve-racking at the same time.”

As the Flames prepare for the level of competition that they will be facing in the 2018 season, McQuillan believes that a key to success is having goals laid out in front of the team before the season begins.

The Flames have only lost one home game in the last five years. McQuillan is proud of that statistic.

“Not to sound like a broken record, but for us it’s always to win a conference championship and be undefeated at home,” McQuillan said. “It’s going to be a tough go at it, but we’ve lost only one game here (at home) in the last five years. With Arizona State and Colorado and Virginia Tech all playing here in Lynchburg, it’ll be a great challenge for us.”

Despite the Flames 24 combined freshmen and sophomores, many of those sophomores possess the dangerous dual threat of youth and experience which the Flames hope will help carry them far into the playoffs.

“Obviously to make a birth at nationals and compete for a National Championship are kind of the things that we put at the top of our list,” McQuillan said.

The Flames 2018 journey will begin Feb. 23 when they play their first regular season game in Knoxville, Tennessee, against the University of Tennessee Volunteers.