The anticipation grew for the first home game of the season as fans gathered inside Liberty Arena to watch the Liberty University Women’s Volleyball team defeat Lamar University 3-0 on Friday, Sept. 4.
The Lady Flames set the tone following the first serve, maintaining control throughout the first set and winning 25-19.
“Early on, I really liked the effectiveness of our offense,” Head Coach Jeremy White said. “We were taking some better swings than we had recently, especially in weird situations.”
Even through high pressure, the Lady Flames leaned on each other to put up a great defensive wall.
“I thought we set our middles extremely well today,” White said. “That was Laney (Daniell) and Layla (Collins) did a phenomenal job, both had over 600, which is huge numbers for us.”
Sophomore middle blocker Laney Daniell and junior outside hitter Carly O’Brien led the offense, putting up a total of 17 kills.
“Nothing can be done without (the team), so it’s not just me out there, it’s all six of us, so it takes a team to win and push through,” O’Brien said.
Tension rose going into the second set while the point gap decreased. The Cardinals closed the gap, but the Lady Flames pulled through, ending the set with a 25-18 win. Cardinals took a 2-point lead during the set but couldn’t fend Liberty off.
“We know that we have each other and we trust each other, so diving into that trust of everybody really helps,” Daniell said.
The third set ended the match in favor of the Lady Flames with a final set score of 25-23.
Liberty lost against High Point University Sunday, Sept. 6, 1-3, and won against Radford University Tuesday, Sept. 8, 3-0. The Lady Flames will compete in the Hofstra Tournament Friday, Sept. 11.
Potts is a sports reporter for The Liberty Champion.