Field hockey team departs for Michigan to make history in Liberty’s first-ever Final Four appearance

Fans gathered for a celebratory send-off at the Liberty University Field Hockey Complex Wednesday afternoon, cheering on the Lady Flames before they headed to the airport and prepare to make history as the first LU team in any sport to play in an NCAA Division I Final Four. They face the University of Maryland at noon on Friday at the University of Michigan’s Phyllis Ocker Field in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The No. 9-ranked Lady Flames upset No. 1 Rutgers University on Sunday, 3-2 in a shootout on the Scarlet Knights’ home field.

“It’s a little surreal,” Liberty Head Coach Nikki Parsley-Blocker said during a Monday press conference. “But I don’t know; as we’ve been saying for so many years, if we had just gotten in the tournament, I think we could have done this back in 2019. They didn’t let us in (with an at-large bid) and we didn’t get the automatic qualification.”

The Lady Flames cruised into the NCAA Tournament after defeating Connecticut in the BIG EAST Championships final on Nov. 7, and they have proven to onlookers that they belong. They knocked off No. 11 Saint Joseph’s 2-0 in the first round before stunning Big Ten Champion Rutgers in Piscataway, N.J., marking their first win in program history over a No. 1-ranked team.

After a scoreless 20 minutes of overtime and double overtime, the Rutgers game was settled in a penalty corner shootout. The Lady Flames’ first, second, fourth, and fifth shooters — Jill Bolton, Reagan Underwood, Maddie Hosler, and Charlotte Vaanhold — each scored to secure the win.

Liberty heads to the Final Four with a 19-2 overall record and a 16-game winning streak, the longest in the nation.

“It’s truly an honor really,” Bolton said during a press conference on Monday. “I couldn’t have imagined my senior fall any better than this right now, going to the Final Four. Closing out my hockey career like this is special. It’s truly a gift is what it is.”

“It’s an exciting time,” Hosler added. “I think this morning I realized there are only three other teams practicing right now, so that was when it really became surreal to me.”

While the Lady Flames will be representing Liberty in the school’s first-ever Final Four, the Terrapins, who edged No. 10 Syracuse, 2-1, on Sunday to advance to the next round, will be playing in their 20th.

Liberty and Maryland will be meeting for only the second time. The Terrapins topped the Lady Flames 4-1 on Oct. 8, 2017, in College Park, Md.

“It’s just this incredible crazy cool feeling of freedom because we’ve never been here before,” Parsley-Blocker said this week on the Flames Central Podcast. “And it’s not a scary thing. I think there’s more pressure on someone who has expectations to win another national championship like Maryland.”

With a win over Maryland, the Lady Flames would continue to make history as the first Liberty team to play in a National Championship game, scheduled for Sunday at 2 p.m. at the same location.