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Women’s soccer crowned Big South champions
The Liberty University women’s soccer team won its second straight Big South Conference (BSC) tournament championship Nov. 6 in Greensboro, N.C. — its third in four seasons and sixth in history.
The Lady Flames upset top-seeded regular-season champion High Point, 2-1, on BSC Freshman of the Year Gabrielle Farrell’s overtime goal. That extended Liberty’s program-record winning streak to eight games, eclipsing the mark set in 2005. Ironically, it also ended redshirt senior goalie Holly Van Noord’s record-setting shutout streak at seven.
Between a season-opening loss to No. 4 Virginia and season-ending setback to second-seeded North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA Championships, the Lady Flames made tremendous strides, finishing 14-8 and second in the conference race (7-2).
Van Noord was selected as the Big South Defensive Player of the Year for the second time in three seasons and made her fourth National Soccer Coaches Association of America All-Southeast Region team. She finished her four-year career as the BSC’s all-time leader with 41 shutouts. She also posted Liberty’s all-time career low with a 0.79 goals-against average and its second-most saves with 407.
Midfielder Isabella Habuda, a junior transfer from the University of Louisville, made a major impact, earning BSC All-Conference first team and NSCAA All-Southeast Region team honors after leading all Big South scorers with 10 goals and 25 points. That ranks her fifth on the Lady Flames’ all-time single-season scoring list in both categories.
Junior forward and BSC tournament MVP Jennifer Knoebel moved up to third on Liberty’s all-time scoring list with 55 points and second in assists with 21.
Women’s cross country runners claim ninth conference championship
The Lady Flames held off two-time defending champion High Point University, 38-45, to win the Big South Championships in Swannanoa, N.C., in October.
Sophomore Anna Van Wyk took runner-up in the women’s 5K race in a personal-best time of 18 minutes 2.1 seconds. She earned All-BSC honors for the second straight year and gave the Lady Flames a top-three finisher at the BSC Championships for the 12th consecutive season.
Van Wyk paced a pack of eight Lady Flames who crossed the finish line in front of High Point’s fifth runner. As a result, Liberty surged past the Panthers for its ninth BSC women’s cross country team championship.
Senior captain Terrill Zentmeyer closed out her cross country career with a fifth-place finish, after placing 20th the past two seasons, in 18:51.8. Liberty’s 38 points total was the lowest winning score (in cross country, the low score wins) at this meet since 2007, when the Lady Flames won with 36.
The Flames’ men, meanwhile, were runners-up to defending champion Campbell, 31-37, in the closest margin of victory since 1995. It was Liberty’s 14th consecutive top-two men’s finish.
Liberty welcomes Campbell football into Big South Conference
Flames Football will have a new opponent in the Big South starting in the fall of 2018. After competing in the Pioneer Football League for one more season, Campbell University’s football program will join the conference, replacing Coastal Carolina which moved into the Football Bowl Subdivision Sun Belt Conference.
Campbell, a founding member of the Big South in 1983 before joining the Atlantic Sun Conference in 1994 and returning to the BSC in 2011, already competes in the Big South in 18 other sports, including baseball, softball, basketball, and soccer. The Camels football team, which will go from offering no scholarships to funding 63, will join two-time defending conference champion Charleston Southern, Gardner-Webb, Kennesaw State, Monmouth, Presbyterian, and Liberty.
The Flames have won at least a share of eight of the past 10 BSC regular-season championships. This fall, by tying Charleston Southern at 4-1 in BSC play, Liberty moved ahead of Coastal Carolina into the lead for most titles (eight) since the conference started sponsoring football in 2002.
State Games of America coming to Liberty in 2019
Nearly a year to the day after announcing it was taking over as title sponsor and primary host of the Virginia Commonwealth Games, Liberty University revealed in October that it had also won the bid to host the 2019 State Games of America, set for July 31-Aug. 4, 2019.
The biennial competition invites top participants from individual state games across the country to compete in one place, and this is the first time Virginia has been selected to host the national festival. The 2017 Games will be held Aug. 3-6 in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Meanwhile, individual sport competitions for the 2017 Commonwealth Games begin in April with several of this year’s events being held in campus facilities or other locations around Lynchburg. The Main Games Weekend, from July 21-23, will include opening ceremonies in the Vines Center and is expected to draw thousands of athletes to campus. The university celebrated its first year as title sponsor of the 27th Commonwealth Games in 2016 by hosting close to 10,000 athletes who competed in 60 sports. Registration is available at CommonwealthGames.org.
Club Sports Hall of Fame inducts third class
Puglisi
Manguiob
Smith
Former Liberty women’s hockey goalie Patti Smith, former Flames snowboarder and Ski & Snowboard Assistant Coach Kevin Manguiob, and former Men’s Hockey Head Coach Corrado Puglisi became the newest members of the Club Sports Hall of Fame to be inducted, Dec. 9 in a formal ceremony held in the Hancock Welcome Center.
The three athletes and coaches embody the university’s ideals of athletic, educational, and spiritual excellence. They each helped launch or revive their respective programs on tight budgets, before the Club Sports department could afford to provide transportation, hotel accommodations, or even meal allowances on road trips. Their hard work and dedication made a lasting impact on the lives of their teammates and players.
Smith played more minutes and posted more wins (42) than any goalie in Liberty women’s hockey history and finished with a 94.0 career save percentage. Manguiob, now a senior photographer at Liberty, helped the Flames dominate Southeast Region competition and land several skiers and snowboarders on the podium at the United States Ski and Snowboard Association National Championships. Puglisi was promoted from assistant to head coach of the men’s hockey team in 1996 and helped get the Flames into the Atlantic Coast Collegiate Hockey Association and win the tournament on their first try in 1997.
Men’s swimming & diving team to launch this fall
The Liberty Natatorium is scheduled to open Nov. 1.
Liberty University’s thriving Club Sports program will offer men’s swimmers and divers a chance to compete for the Flames for the first time this fall.
The men’s Club Sports program and the already established NCAA Division I women’s swimming & diving program will both utilize the new $15 million, 70,000-square-foot Liberty Natatorium (connected to the new Indoor Track Complex) when it officially opens Nov. 1.
Liberty’s men’s team will compete as members of U.S. Masters Swimming (the new governing body for collegiate club swim teams), against collegiate club programs from around Virginia and North Carolina before traveling to regional and national meets.
“We’d like to have at least 20 swimmers and five divers the first year,” Liberty Club Sports Athletic Director Kirk Handy said. “Now that we’ll have a facility that’s one of the best in the nation, it definitely sets us up to build a very successful program.”
Current men’s and women’s triathlon and cycling Head Coach Parker Spencer will also take on head coaching responsibilities for men’s swimming & diving.
“It’s really exciting,” Spencer said. “Now I look at it as my responsibility to make these the best teams that Liberty can offer and the best in the country. I think we’re going to produce professional athletes out of all three of our teams, athletes who may become Olympians and compete at the top levels of their sport.”
