Team News

Members of Liberty University’s synchronized skating team returned from their trip through New York City and the season’s first official performance  in Stamford, Conn. with plenty of memories made and silver medals earned from Saturday night’s second-place showing in the Collegiate Open division of the Terry Conners Synchronized Skating Open.

“We are very proud of the skate our girls put on the ice at our first competition,” Lady Flames first-year Head Coach Hannah Pulley said, noting that Liberty finished behind a team from Princeton University and ahead of Mirror Images, a synchronized skating team made up of student-athletes from a few different colleges and universities in the Northeast. “All the teams were pretty close in skill level. I believe the girls skated very well for their first competition, but their performance still leaves room for improvement, and we look forward to enhancing our skating and program skills for our next competition.”

Judges rated performances on a 6.0 scoring system also used in Winter Olympic figure skating competitions. Pulley expressed her thankfulness to the parents of team members who traveled to cheer at the late-night skate, with Liberty’s session starting at 9:18 p.m.

She said the Lady Flames enjoyed their tour of New York City and Times Square at Christmastime, which included a showing of the Christmas Spectacular starring the Rockettes precision ice dance team, an open skating session in Bryant Park, and visit to the famous Rockefeller Christmas tree.

“During our competition weekend, we were able to recruit and spread the name of Liberty University by wearing our team apparel and talking with locals in New York City and Connecticut,” Pulley said. “As a team, we were able to bond together and form life-long memories.”

This week, before and after Thursday’s and Friday’s finals, the Lady Flames are refining their “Warrior” routine for Saturday’s South Atlantic Synchro Open at Skate Nation Plus in Glen Allen, Va., a suburb of Richmond, where they will compete against the University of Maryland in the Open Collegiate division.

“We have a few practices this week in preparation for this weekend,” Pulley said. “We hope to be able to implement performance skills and overall skills going into that competition more comfortably and with even more confidence.”