Lady Flames volleyball end as No. 2 in ASUN
The Lady Flames volleyball team ended its season with an overall record of 23-9 and a conference record of 14-2.
The team also finished the regular season as champions, entering the ASUN tournament as the No. 1 seed. They traveled to the Allen Arena at Lipscomb in Nashville, Tennessee, and the Flames started in the quarterfinals against No. 8 Stetson, winning 3-2. In the semifinals, the Lady Flames stayed on track, defeating the four-seeded Lipscomb 3-2. Finally in the championship, they failed to win it all, losing to their rival FGCU by a score of 0-3.
“I’m just really proud of the girls and just their resiliency and how they responded to adversity in that match,” Head Coach Trevor Johnson said. “I said survive and advance, and that’s exactly what we did.”
The Lady Flames’ goal was to make it to the championship, and they did just that. Having played 10 sets going into the final, the girls were tired, but they still put up a valiant effort.
Their 2022 regular season play earned the Lady Flames a bid to the National Invitational Volleyball Championship where they got to host the first two rounds. Sadly, home court advantage wasn’t enough for them, as they fell to Western Carolina 1-3 in the first round.
During the match against WCU, multiple Flames hit career waypoints. Junior Delaney Dilfer dished out her 3000th career assist, another junior, Lydia Burts, hit .400 with a match-high 17 kills and sophomore Kate Phillips registered her 12th double-double of the season with 16 kills and 10 digs.
“I just want them to keep getting better,” Johnson said. “That’s always the goal – to get a little bit better each day in practice and be a little bit better each match you play, and that’s not going to change.”
Entering the postseason, Liberty women’s volleyball was the only NCAA D1 volleyball team with four players scoring 300 or more kills this season – juniors Kamryn Bacus, (346) Trinity Watts (318) and Lydia Burts (309) and sophomore Kate Phillips (336).
Some notable postseason awards included Delaney Dilfer being named Setter of the Year, and Johnson was named Coach of the Year. Burts and Dilfer were awarded ASUN All Conference First Team, while Kamryn Bacus was named to Second Team and sophomore Madison Blane to Third Team.
Blane, redshirt sophomore Julia Mangum and Phillips were all named to the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District Team.
The Lady Flames will get a long break headed into winter. They will go back to some practice and lifting, and then come February, they will be back into the full swing of things. They will be playing in three or four different tournaments in the spring – some of which they will host.
Bruss is a sports reporter for the Liberty Champion. Follow her on Twitter