The Liberty University Field Hockey team fell from its No. 6 seed in a heartbreaking 3-2 shootout finish to No. 10 Syracuse University in the NCAA Division I Field Hockey Championship Sweet 16.
This marked the ending of what has been one of Liberty’s strongest seasons in recent years, finishing with an overall record of 17-3 and 7-0 in conference play.
“I think we’re pretty excited with the matchup and we’re ready to go for Friday — if we could be playing right now, we would be,” Head Coach Nikki Parsley-Blocker told Liberty Athletics before the game. “I think it’s good. They are going to run-and-gun and so are we.”
The Lady Flames forced overtime in dramatic fashion, tying the match with less than a minute remaining in regulation and carrying heavy momentum into two extra periods. After 80 minutes of intense, back-and-forth postseason play, the game came down to shootouts. Syracuse converted 4-of-5 attempts, while Liberty finished 2-of-4, allowing the Lady Orange to escape Bedford Field with the narrow win.
“I think the girls are really resilient in how they’ve been playing all year,” Parsley-Blocker said.
Despite the end result, Liberty dictated the flow for much of the match, remaining strong in the second half and overtime. The Lady Flames generated a commanding 15-4 advantage in penalty corners, including 10 after halftime. Several sequences saw Liberty trapping Syracuse deep in its own end, creating repeated scoring windows, but the Lady Orange barred the Lady Flames from finding the goal.
Syracuse struck first in the second quarter off a penalty-corner strike from graduate student defender Bo van Kempen. Liberty’s response came just before the break off a corner in the 28th minute.
Redshirt junior defender Kyleigh Faust pounced on a rebound and backhanded the equalizer into the cage, sending the game into halftime tied 1-1.
Liberty nearly took the lead early in the third quarter when the Lady Flames earned a penalty stroke, but Syracuse junior goalkeeper Jessie Eiselin came up, denying sophomore defender Dara Semmartin at the right post. The Lady Orange capitalized moments later, scoring off a quick counterattack to retake a 2-1 advantage heading into the fourth.
With their season on the line, the Lady Flames continued to fight. Parsley-Blocker pulled freshman goalkeeper Diane Saint Martin for an extra attacking player with just over three minutes left as Liberty immediately began pressing the Syracuse circle.
Liberty found itself up a player twice after two Syracuse yellow cards, adding to the late-game pressure. On Liberty’s sixth corner of the fourth quarter, the breakthrough finally came. After the initial shot was blocked, sophomore forward Josefina Tomasi tied the score at the 59:18 mark — her seventh goal of the season.
Both overtime periods ended with Liberty on a penalty corner, inches away from ending the match. Each time, Syracuse survived just long enough to push the game into shootouts.
In shootouts, Liberty converted through senior forward Lou Combrinck and freshman midfielder Paris-Gail Isaacs, but Syracuse made 4-of-5 attempts.
Eiselin finished with five saves for the Lady Orange, while Saint Martin recorded seven in her final appearance of the year.
Syracuse moved on to face No. 3 Princeton University in Sunday’s Elite Eight where the Lady Orange fell to the Lady Tigers 2-1.
Potter is a sports reporter for the Liberty Champion.