Cami Merkel Scores As Liberty Women’s Lacrosse Defeats Old Dominion 18-7

After opening the 2022 season with back-to-back losses, the Liberty women’s lacrosse team bounced back in a rigorous fashion and now sits at 3-2. The team kickstarted the turnaround with an overtime victory at Virginia Tech, and then the Lady Flames demolished Old Dominion 18-7. 

Liberty dominated on the offensive side of the field, totaling 43 shots on goal compared to the Monarchs’ 19 shots on goal. Out of those 43 shots, 18 of them found their home in the back of the net. Liberty sophomore Mackenzie Lehman started the scoring with an unassisted goal, her first of three goals in the game. 

Lehman was one of seven Lady Flames to score in the contest and one of three with hat tricks. Freshman Cami Merkel had five goals of her own, and redshirt junior Brooke Bryan tallied three goals and a team-high two assists.  

Shortly after Lehman’s goal, Merkel spun around and launched the ball into the net to give the Lady Flames a 2-0 lead. Two minutes later, sophomore Olivia Glaze pushed Liberty’s lead to three points. Lehman, Merkel and Glaze scored their second goals of the game in the same order they scored their first. 

The Lady Flames opened this season with losses to Vanderbilt and to Richmond. Both of those games gave the team experience to learn from mistakes and make adjustments. 

 “We played some really tough teams early on … We like to play a tough schedule and be challenged,” Head Coach Kelly Nangle said. “I think there’s a lot of value to having big challenges early in your season.” 

She said how the opening loss to Vanderbilt exposed flaws in their system, which they have righted in their last few games. 

Liberty then defeated Robert Morris 18-5 March 5 to notch a winning record on the season. The Lady Flames will next host the Florida Gators March 9 before the team travels to Berkeley, California, in matches against UC Davis and California March 11-13. 

Palsgrove is a sports reporter. Follow him on Twitter