Archer, women’s hockey goalie, men’s lacrosse midfielder comprise Club Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2024

Liberty University’s Club Sports department recently announced its 11th Hall of Fame class, which will be inducted during a Jan. 31, 2025 ceremony at the Hancock Welcome Center.

The three new members, who only became eligible in the past year — Chantal (Lischynski) Kerr (’15, ’18, Division I women’s hockey), Brett Bernardo (’16, ’19, men’s lacrosse), and Ian Rigney (’19, archery) — each helped elevate their respective teams to new heights, with Kerr starting in goal for the Lady Flames’ first two ACHA Division I national championships and Bernardo and Rigney excelling as both athletes and coaches.

Kerr (’15, B.S. in Mathematics, minor in French; ’18, M.A.T. in Secondary Education), who is married to Club Sports Assistant Athletic Director of Sports Performance Chris Kerr, was selected as the Club Sports Female Athlete of the Year in 2015 after posting five shutouts, a 0.99 goals-against average, and 95.4 save percentage that season, capped by a 4-1 triumph over defending national champion Miami (Ohio) University. That was the Lady Flames’ first of six national championships, and only one under Club Sports Hall of Fame Coach Paul Bloomfield, who was inducted last February. Then, after returning to the roster near the end of current Head Coach Chris Lowes’ first season at the helm in 2018, she repeated her Tournament Most Valuable Player performance and All-ACHA DI All-America honors with a 2-1 triumph over Adrian College in the final, the first of Liberty’s ACHA record five consecutive national crowns.

Bernardo was a two-year captain at midfielder for the Flames’ men’s lacrosse team, scoring 82 goals and distributing 57 assists in 44 games over three seasons. He was a two-time MCLA Division I First-Team All-American and three-time All-SouthEastern Lacrosse Conference team member, earning SELC Offensive Player of the Year honors in 2015.

After completing his B.S. in Business Marketing in 2016, Bernardo joined Liberty’s men’s lacrosse staff as a graduate assistant coach and offensive coordinator for the next three seasons, leading the Flames (17-2) to the MCLA Division I National Championships for the second season in a row and second time in program history in 2019. Following assistant coaching stints at Grove City (Pa.) College in 2019-21 and Messiah (Pa.) University in 2021-22, Bernardo moved to Palm Beach Atlantic (Fla.) University where he served as an assistant coach for two seasons before being promoted to head coach in July.

A three-time U.S. Collegiate Archery 3D outdoor national champion, Rigney was part of Liberty’s first archery trio to capture an outdoor national title — in men’s compound at the USCA 3D National Championships in 2012. He also earned an individual crown in that discipline that year before later adding three more national trophies to his quiver. As a junior in 2015, Rigney was recognized for the Outstanding Performance of the Year at the Club Sports Choice Awards after winning the men’s bowhunter division at the 45th annual USCA Indoor National Championships in Lancaster, Pa. Rigney served as a graduate assistant under Head Coach Mitch Reno — who will serve as his presenter for the Jan. 31 induction ceremony — for three semesters before taking the reins as head coach from 2017-19, coaching another team and individual national champion.

Rigney earned his B.A. in Religious Studies: Theology and Apologetics in 2016 and his M.Div. in Theology in 2017 before being named senior pastor of Hitesburg Baptist Church in Virgilina, Va., near his hometown of Gretna, in 2018. He and his wife Alysha (’16, B.S. in Nursing) have two children — James (2), and Anna (five months).