Liberty Volleyball Set For Season Opener With ECU
8/26/2021 12:50:08 PM | Women's Volleyball
The Liberty volleyball team opens its 2021 fall season with a Friday home match against East Carolina. The Lady Flames and Pirates are both looking to regain their winning ways. Liberty posted a 21-12 record in 2019, making a run to the NIVC quarterfinals, while ECU fashioned a 19-11 record two years ago. This spring, the Lady Flames went 5-9 overall, compared to 4-8 for the Pirates. The Lady Flames finished the 2021 spring regular season on a three-match winning streak before falling to Kennesaw State in the ASUN quarterfinal on March 27.
Matchday Central Links
Liberty vs. ECU
Match Date: Friday, Aug. 27
Match Time: 6 p.m.
Location: Liberty Arena
Live Video: ESPN+
Liberty was predicted to finish sixth in the ASUN preseason coaches’ poll. Senior Amaya Williams was the Fan-Voted ASUN Preseason Setter of the Year for the second year in a row, while redshirt senior Amelia Preston was the Fan-Voted Preseason Player of the Year. ECU returns All-AAC first team honoree Bri Wood.
STARTING ROTATION
1. Fourth-year head coach Trevor Johnson, a 2019 VolleyballMag.com Under 40 Coaching Hotshots list honoree, earned his 100th career win as a collegiate women’s volleyball head coach on March 13, 2021 at Bellarmine. He had a previous stint as a head coach at Concordia (CA).
2. Liberty begins its second season in Liberty Arena, five months to the day after the 2021 spring season ended. Liberty Arena is a state-of-the-art facility that also includes a Taraflex playing surface that is used for all matches.
3. Redshirt senior Amelia Preston returns after missing the spring season with an injury. A 2019 All-ASUN first team selection and ASUN Scholar-Athlete of the Year, her last match was Dec. 10, 2019 at Georgia Tech. It will have been 626 days since she has played a match.
4. Liberty ranked 13th nationally this spring with 2.74 blocks per set, while Lydia Burts was ranked seventh in Division I with an ASUN-record 1.57 blocks per set. Burts, a second team All-ASUN selection, was the first Liberty freshman since Leah Clayton in 2016 to be named all-conference.
5. Trinity Watts, a 2021 VaSD All-State second team player, returns after leading the Lady Flames with 137 kills this spring. She reached double figures in kills nine times and played her best down the stretch, scoring 10 or more kills in each of the last five regular-season matches.
6. Junior Rajini Fitzmaurice, the only Lady Flame to start the season opener in both 2019 and 2021, recorded a team-high six double-digit kill matches in the spring. Her 17 kills on March 12 at Bellarmine were the most by a Lady Flame in a single match last season.
7. Amaya Williams led the team in assists as a freshman in 2017, and this spring marked her second season as the team’s assists leader. Her 45 assists against North Alabama on March 19 were the most by a Liberty setter in a three-set match since Oct. 3, 2014 at Gardner-Webb.
