Liberty Women’s Lacrosse Erases Five-Goal Deficit Before Falling In Overtime 13-12

With the wind tearing across the fields, the Liberty women’s lacrosse team narrowly fell 13-12 to the Richmond Spiders Feb. 19 in a nail-biting overtime finish. 

The Lady Flames came into their home-opener game after a closely fought 18-13 loss to Vanderbilt. With the first draw at 1 p.m., the team took on the Spiders at home for the first time since 2019.

The Spiders won the first draw, but goalkeeper Jennifer Soriero caused a turnover that led to senior midfielder Mia Toscano’s second goal of the season. The Lady Flames and the Spiders traded yellow card penalties, and Liberty capitalized, going up 2-1 on its extra-man opportunity. The Spiders scored at the end of the quarter to tie it up 2-2.

“Last week, we got really exposed in the transition,” Head Coach Kelly Nangle said. “We worked really hard to close that and not give up anything easy.”

After a slow start to the quarter, sophomore attacker Jordan Baerga, named ASUN Player of the Week after her career-high five goals last week, scored on a quick cut to the center of the field — tying the game 3-3. Within seconds of the goal, sophomore midfielder Mackenzie Lehman controlled the draw and dished the ball inside to junior Andrea Colavito, putting the Flames up 4-3. Richmond rallied back to take a 5-4 lead entering the second half of play.

“We needed to change it up a little bit. They did a good job adjusting on the fly and getting more opportunities,” Nangle said.

Starting this season, the sport transitioned to playing 15-minute quarters instead of traditional 30-minute halves. 

The Lady Flames came out firing in the second half. Hot off her career-best 10 draw controls last week, Lehman won two draws, scoring off both for the team’s only goals of the quarter. 

With only four minutes remaining and the game tied at 6-6, the Spiders pulled away from the Lady Flames, scoring four goals in mere minutes to assume a 10-6 lead.

Taking advantage of the break between the quarters, the Lady Flames reset and looked to mount a major comeback. The Lady Flames started strong with a fast break goal by junior midfielder Lizzy Ferguson. The Spiders answered with two goals to increase the lead to 12-7. The Lady Flames defense, led by senior defender Hannah Quast, provided momentum for the team by causing several turnovers. 

“It starts off a spark,” Quast said. “It’s fun because this team carries off of each little thing.”

Lehman started the bleeding by scoring her third goal of the game with six minutes remaining. The Lady Flames unleashed their offense with junior attacker Brooke Bryan scoring two goals to give her and Lehman hat tricks on the day.

“We were using each other to our strengths, and once we got that working, we started playing as a really strong offense,” Lehman said.

Freshman attacker Cami Merkel, who scored four goals in her collegiate debut last week, put another one away to cut the Spiders lead to 12-11. On a free position shot with overtime in sight, Lehman put the team on her back and scored again to tie it up with under a minute left in regulation. The Lady Flames defense locked down to force an overtime tiebreaker.

The Lady Flames held off the Spiders aggressive offense, looking for a window of opportunity. The Spiders eventually cracked Liberty’s resilient defense and scored the winning goal, improving to 3-0 on the season.

The 0-2 Lady Flames will travel to take on Virginia Tech Feb. 23 in Blacksburg, Virginia, at 3 p.m. Their next home game will be March 3 at 3 p.m. when they take on Old Dominion at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields.

Shealy is a sports reporter. Follow him on Twitter