Liberty raced out to a six-goal halftime lead and closed the game strong for a 14-8 victory at Old Dominion, Wednesday afternoon at the L.R. Hill Sports Complex.

The Lady Flames pick up their first road win of 2021 and improve to 3-3 on the season. Old Dominion drops to 2-4 on the year.

Liberty evens up the all-time series with ODU at 3-3 and has won each of the last three meetings. The Lady Flames have now topped the Monarchs by identical 14-8 scores in the last two showdowns. Liberty also defeated ODU 14-8 on March 22, 2019 at the Liberty Lacrosse Field.

Liberty freshman Jordan Sheive notched her first career three-goal game, while Leah Ruby had her second hat trick in as many games. Lady Flames freshman attacker Kelly Scott scored her first career goal on Wednesday, a free-position shot with 1:33 remaining. Andrea Colavito, Olivia Glaze and Tori Banks each scored twice in the win.

Scoring Summary
Liberty Goals: Leah Ruby 3, Jordan Sheive 3, Andrea Colavito 2, Olivia Glaze 2, Tori Banks 2, Kelly Scott 1, Brooke Bryan 1
Liberty Assists: Mia Toscano 2, Andrea Colavito 1, Grace Fletcher 1, Leah Ruby 1
Old Dominion Goals: Claire Porter 3, Lindsay Baer 2, Haley O'Connor 1, Maddie Mullenbach 1, Danielle Dundas 1
Old Dominion Assists: Lindsay Baer 2, Claire Porter 2, Lilly Siskind 2

Goalkeepers
W: Jennifer Soriero 3-3, six saves
L: Jenna Peccia 2-2, three saves

Turning Point
Liberty scored the game's first six goals over the opening 18:34 of play. During that run, Sheive scored twice, and the Lady Flames received goals from Colavito (first of game), Banks, Ruby and Brooke Bryan.

ODU scored four straight goals in the second half to trim the Liberty lead down to three, 11-8, with 11:32 remaining. Liberty closed the game on a 3-0 run, with the trio of goals from Ruby (7:31 mark), Colavito (3:05 mark) and Scott (1:33 mark) all coming on free-position shots. Scott's first career goal was a low shot into the bottom left corner of the net.

First Half Summary
• Liberty's defense held ODU off the scoreboard for the first 22:34 of the contest. The Monarchs' Maddie Mullenbach finally broke the scoreless drought with a goal with 7:36 remaining.
• The Lady Flames won eight of the nine draws in the opening half, led by two apiece from Colavito and Mia Toscano. Liberty also collected 13 ground balls, compared to eight for ODU. Defender Claire Bratchie paced the visitors with three ground balls in the half.

Second Half Summary
• Liberty's biggest lead came early in the second half after Glaze scored her second goal of the day, assisted by Toscano, to make it 8-1 with 27:23 left.
• The Lady Flames outshot the Monarchs 19-12 over the final 30 minutes.

Key Stats & Notes
• Liberty outshot ODU 36-21 and had advantages in ground balls (27-15), draw controls (16-8), caused turnovers (14-8) and free-position goals (5-2). The Lady Flames made things challenging for the Monarchs in the clear, as ODU successfully converted only 17-of-29 (58.6 percent) of its attempts. Conversely, Liberty was 15-of-18 (83.3 percent) on clearing efforts.
• Lady Flames senior defender Sarah Steenson led all players with three caused turnovers, while freshman midfielder Mackenzie Lehman paced Liberty with four ground balls in the contest.
• Liberty goalkeeper Jennifer Soriero made four of her six saves in the first half and improved to 3-3 on the season. The netminder has a 10.00 goals-against-average on the year with 48 saves, a .444 save percentage, 11 caused turnovers and a team-best 28 ground balls.
• Thirteen different Lady Flames attempted shots in the game, led by eight shots from Ruby and seven from Glaze. Ruby became the first Liberty player this season to score multiple free-position goals.

Up Next
• Liberty and William & Mary (2-2) will match up against each other, Saturday afternoon in Williamsburg, Va. First draw is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Busch Turf Field.
• The Lady Flames are 1-2 all-time against the Tribe but won the last meeting nearly three years ago (March 28, 2018) by an 11-7 score at the Liberty Lacrosse Field.