Humbling the Hoyas

It was a sunny day with a light breeze when the Flames kicked off their field hockey game against Georgetown on Saturday, Oct. 13. With 382 fans in attendance on Family Weekend, the comfortable 66-degree weather matched the intensity of the field hockey players, as they did not play high energy or enthusiasm.

“Energy is one of the things that, if it’s high, we can beat any team,” Freshman Forward Moniek Van Aarle, who scored the technical game-winning goal, said. “Whereas now, it was not as high.”

Van Aarle said energy was lacking both offensively and defensively in the game, making it difficult for them to score too many goals. She said the passing was not very strong and they could not seem to be able to get much going offensively. Liberty did win the game 2-1, but they did not play up to the bar they have set most of the season.

Van Aarle scored a goal 3:38 into the game off an assist from Midfielder Jill Bolton, and it was the only score for over 50 minutes when Midfielder Abby Julius scored a goal off a defender Mallory Fortenbaugh assist. Georgetown scored a goal at the 68:28 mark when Liberty started playing conservative and not pushing their defense to the end.

“I thought it was average,” Head Coach Nikki Parsley-Blocker said. “We’ve put together some pretty good performances this year, and I don’t it’s where we need to be headed into the last part of the season, but a win’s always a good thing to get, so a step in the right
direction.”

Liberty came out very flat-footed on offense, as they struggled to connect on passes for a majority of the game. While they did manage to get off 18 shots, including 10 on net, the Lady Flames could only manage two goals. They got a few one-timers and off-guard shots, but they could not execute on rebounds or get multiple shots to the net
at once.

“I think that we put Georgetown’s keeper under a tremendous amount of pressure,”    

Parsley-Blocker said.

“She really played well for them today.”

Liberty got a lot of shots, but still did not have the ball-control they normally demonstrate. It made it difficult to keep the pressure on consistently. 

Another thing Parsley-Blocker said Liberty did not do well was play with the same defense and hustle they have been playing with all season.

“I thought that was one of the things that was missing,” Parsley-Blocker said. “I think one of the things that makes us really special is just being relentless and a commitment to out-work and attack our opponents, and I don’t think that was really happening from top to bottom for a whole 70 minutes. I think it happened in moments, and we just need to work on putting it together for a full
70 minutes.”

While the team struggled in the game against Georgetown, Parsley-Blocker is confident in this team. She said everyone is bought in, and they have been from the moment they stepped foot on campus. She said every player has been brought in since they first joined this team, which makes this team ready to compete and fight
in every game.

“I think I’m super confident,” Parsley-Blocker said. “I think it’s a special team. We’ve been saying that all year. But yeah, we’re super excited just to finish
out the season.”

Liberty has four games remaining on the regular season schedule, including bouts with at least two straight top-15 teams, and a postponed game against 9th ranked Syracuse. The Lady Flames will next be in home action Oct. 21 against Boston College before hosting the Big East tournament at the beginning of November.