2019 Deemed Liberty Women's Lacrosse's Top Season in School HIstory
10/9/2020 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
In conjunction with each institution's sports information office, the ASUN Conference has announced each member school's top team in its women's lacrosse program history. The 2019 squad was recognized as Liberty's best team, with the 2013, 2015 and 2018 teams all earning honorable mention.
Top Women's Lacrosse Season – 2019
The 2019 Liberty women's lacrosse program posted a program-record 14 wins, including a 5-1 mark in its first year in the ASUN Conference, and reached the ASUN title game. Liberty featured seven ASUN All-Conference players, led by first team selections Carly White and Brianna McCaffrey. McCaffrey and goalkeeper Katherine Widrick became the first two players in program history to be selected to the IWLCA Senior All-Star Game.
Kayla Foster, Hannah Quast, Sarah Steenson and Widrick each garnered inclusion on the ASUN All-Conference second team, while Hope Flack made the ASUN All-Freshman team. Foster closed out her Lady Flames career as the program's all-time points leader, accumulating 240 points (111 goals, 129 assists) in four years.
The Lady Flames (14-5, 5-1 ASUN) finished the year at No. 31 in the NCAA Women's Lacrosse RPI listing, their best mark to end a season in school history. Liberty achieved a program-best RPI ranking of No. 25 on April 24, 2019. The Lady Flames led all ASUN teams with 10 weekly award winners (offense and defensive player of the week).
Liberty led the nation in caused turnovers per game (15.79) for a second straight season. The Lady Flames were also among the national leaders in ground balls per game (No. 8, 21.53), scoring margin (No. 13, 5.00), scoring defense (No. 14, 9.11), shots per game (No. 18, 33.63) and scoring offense (No. 20, 14.11).
Honorable Mention – 2013, 2015 and 2018The 2013 Liberty lacrosse team posted an 8-10 record and 4-3 mark in its first year in the Big South Conference. The Lady Flames featured four all-conference selections in Jen Freymond (first team), Chloe McIntosh (second team), Nina Dunay (second team) and Kristen Masullo (second team). Freymond (first team) and McIntosh (second team) also received VaSID All-State recognition. Freymond ranked 12th in the country in ground balls per game (2.83) and 22nd in caused turnovers per game (1.61), while Masullo finished 14th in the nation in saves (142), 20th in save percentage (.449) and 22nd in saves per game (7.89).
The 2015 Lady Flames won nine matches and posted a 5-2 Big South record in head coach Kelly Nangle's second season at the helm, reaching the Big South Championship title game for the only time in program history. Liberty (9-11, 5-2 Big South) featured seven all-conference recipients in Morgan Becker (first team), Dunay (first team), Colleen Ekert (first team), Kallie Britton (second team), Katy Pridemore (second team), Sam Struss (second team) and Juliann Elmer (honorable mention). Elmer led the nation in total saves (210), and Pridemore established a program single-season record of 52 goals that still stands to this day.
The 2018 Liberty squad recorded its first 10-plus win season in program history, going 13-5 overall and 6-1 during its final season in the Big South. The Lady Flames matched a school record with seven Big South All-Conference honorees: McCaffrey (first team), White (first team), Foster (second team), Lindsey McNamara (second team), Mia Toscano (second team), Michaela Rich (honorable mention) and Hannah Quast (honorable mention). The Lady Flames finished No. 1 in the nation in caused turnovers per game (14.28) and placed No. 2 in ground balls per game (23.78), No. 4 in shots per game (36.11), No. 9 in shots on goal per game (25.94), No. 16 in scoring defense (9.78), No. 16 in winning percentage (.722), No. 22 in scoring margin (3.67) and No. 23 in assists per game (6.22).
During the coming weeks, the ASUN Conference will continue revealing each member's top seasons in each sport the conference sponsors.
Our 2?0?1?9? team, which won a program-record 14 games, was selected as the best team in school history by @ASUNSports!!!??
— Liberty Lacrosse (@libertywlax) October 9, 2020
??: https://t.co/Z7QMVubmrx#Team10 #RiseWithUs #ASUNWLax pic.twitter.com/KK15WjjZiB