Liberty Set to Face Winthrop on Friday, No. 20 Notre Dame in Home Opener, Sunday
2/14/2019 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
Live Stats: Liberty at Winthrop
Live Stats: Liberty vs. Notre Dame
Live Video: Liberty at Notre Dame (ESPN+)
Liberty Women's Lacrosse Instagram
Liberty Women's Lacrosse Twitter
2019 Liberty Stats
Winthrop Women's Lacrosse Home Page
Notre Dame Women's Lacrosse Home Page
The Lady Flames lacrosse team will play a pair of contests this upcoming weekend, starting with a road game at Winthrop on Friday. On Sunday, Liberty will welcome No. 20 Notre Dame to Lynchburg for its home opener.
Match time for Friday's game between the Lady Flames (1-0) and Eagles (0-2) is slated for 3 p.m. at Eagle Field in Rock Hill, S.C.
Liberty will then welcome the No. 20 Fighting Irish (2-0) to town on Sunday. The game will begin at noon at the Liberty Lacrosse Field. Sunday's match will mark the first time Liberty Athletics has ever faced Notre Dame in any sport in Lynchburg. The Lady Flames are in search of their first-ever victory over a ranked opponent.
Liberty is coming off a convincing 15-5 season-opening victory at Lehigh, Saturday. Meanwhile, Winthrop dropped both of its games on opening weekend (13-12 at East Carolina, 12-4 vs. Davidson).
Notre Dame had a pair of dominating wins, defeating Marquette 19-4 and Canisius 21-4, last weekend.
How to Follow the Lady Flames
On Friday, there will be no live video stream of the game, but there will be live stats, courtesy of Winthrop Athletics. Sunday's match between Liberty and Notre Dame will be carried on ESPN+ and will also feature live scoring, courtesy of Liberty Athletics Communications. Find the links for both video and stats on the schedule page of LibertyFlames.com/womenslacrosse.
For live in-game updates from both contests, follow @libertywlax on Twitter. Also, be sure to follow "libertywlax" on Instagram for live look-ins and updates from Eagle Field (Friday) and the Liberty Lacrosse Field (Sunday).
Lady Flames News and Notes
- Senior goalkeeper Katherine Widrick was named the ASUN Defensive Player of the Week by the conference on Tuesday afternoon. Widrick made 10 saves and posted a .667 save percentage to go along with a team-high five ground balls and two caused turnovers in Liberty's season-opening 15-5 win at Lehigh, last Saturday.
- Eight different Lady Flames scored in the season opener, led by three goals apiece from juniors Jenna Joyal and Carly White.
- Liberty and Winthrop split a pair of games in 2018. The Lady Flames defeated the Eagles 12-11 on Senior Day (April 14) before the Eagles topped Liberty 16-10 in the Big South Championship semifinals (May 4).
- Liberty and Notre Dame will be meeting for the third time ever. The Fighting Irish defeated the Lady Flames in back-to-back seasons (2016 and 2017).
- After leading the nation in caused turnovers per game (14.28) and finishing second in ground balls per game (23.78) in 2018, the Lady Flames generated 14 caused turnovers and picked up 23 ground balls in their first game of the year. Liberty is No. 11 in the country and No. 21 in the nation in those two categories in the early part of the season.
- As a team, the Lady Flames lead the ASUN in caused turnovers per game (14.00), save percentage (.667), scoring defense (5.00), scoring margin (10.00), shots on goal per game (35.00) and shots on goal per game (28.00)
- In the season opener, 19 Liberty players saw playing time. Junior defender Molly Blake made her first career start and notched a career-high three caused turnovers in the game. Freshman midfielder Hope Flack also made her first career start and won a game-high six draw controls.
- ASUN Preseason All-Conference selection, senior Kayla Foster, has 183 career points. She needs five points to surpass former Lady Flame Morgan Becker (187 points, 2012-15) as the all-time leader in program history.
- Liberty (13-5 in 2018) finished No. 38 in the NCAA Lacrosse RPI in 2018, and Winthrop (14-6 in 2018) finished No. 46. Notre Dame (10-9 in 2018) was slotted at No. 27 in the final RPI, last year.
- Liberty went 7-0 at home in 2018, its best home record in school history. The Lady Flames have not lost at home since April 15, 2017.
