Liberty to Meet Lehigh in 2019 Season Opener, Saturday Afternoon
2/7/2019 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
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The Liberty women's lacrosse squad will begin its 2019 campaign at Lehigh, Saturday.
The Lady Flames' (13-5, 6-1 Big South in 2018) season opener against the Mountain Hawks (13-6, 7-2 Patriot League) will begin at noon at Lehigh's Frank Banko Field at the Ulrich Sports Complex in Bethlehem, Pa.
Liberty and Lehigh are meeting for the second time ever. In 2016, the Mountain Hawks topped the Lady Flames 16-5 in Lynchburg. Both Liberty (ASUN Conference) and Lehigh (Patriot League) were picked to finish third in their respective conferences.
How to Follow the Lady Flames
The Patriot League Network will provide exclusive coverage, free of charge, of Saturday's contest. Additionally, Lehigh Sports Communications will have live stats for the game. Find the links for both video and stats on the schedule page of LibertyFlames.com/womenslacrosse.
For live in-game updates from the game, follow @libertywlax on Twitter. Also, be sure to follow "libertywlax" on Instagram for live look-ins and updates from the Ulrich Sports Complex throughout the afternoon.
Lady Flames News and Notes
- Liberty's 2019 roster features seven seniors, seven juniors, seven sophomores and 12 freshmen.
- The Lady Flames' four captains are senior attacker Kayla Foster, senior midfielder Brianna McCaffrey, senior goalkeeper Aubrie Tarris and junior midfielder Carly White.
- Liberty led the nation in caused turnovers per game (14.28) and finished second in the country in ground balls per game (23.78) in 2018. The Lady Flames also finished in the top 10 in the nation in shots per game (No. 4, 36.11) and shots on goal per game (No. 9, 25.94).
- McCaffrey placed No. 4 in the nation in caused turnovers per game (2.72) and No. 20 in ground balls per game (2.94). Foster ranked 21st in the country in assists per game (2.11) and 26th in total assists (38).
- The Lady Flames return 78.9 percent of their scoring (191-of-242 goals) from a year ago. McCaffrey (team-leading 40 goals), White (28 goals) and Foster (27 goals) are the three top returning scorers.
- Liberty had seven players named to the Big South All-Conference team last season: Brianna McCaffrey (first team), Carly White (first team), Kayla Foster (second team), Lindsey McNamara (second team), Mia Toscano (second team), Michaela Rich (honorable mention) and Hannah Quast (honorable mention).
- Foster (100 assists), McCaffrey (182 draw controls, 91 caused turnovers) and Katherine Widrick (11.84 goals-against-average) all hold program career records entering their season campaigns.
- Liberty lacrosse posted a perfect 7-0 mark at home in 2018, its best home record in school history.
- Liberty scored 13.44 goals per game in 2018 and yielded only 9.78 goals per game (No. 16 in nation).
- The Lady Flames have four goalkeepers on the roster this season: seniors Katherine Widrick and Aubrie Tarris and freshmen Jennifer Soriero and Emma Kendrick. Widrick (6-2) ranked fifth in the nation in save percentage (.519) last year, and Tarris led Liberty netminders with seven victories.
- Liberty finished No. 38 in the final NCAA Lacrosse RPI in 2018. Lehigh finished in the No. 29 slot.
- The Lady Flames lacrosse program is 3-6 all-time in season openers and has never played a season opener in the state of Pennsylvania. Liberty defeated Mercer 14-7 in its season opener in 2018. In that match, the Lady Flames outscored the Bears (2018 NCAA Tournament participant) 10-3 in the second half on the way to victory.
