No. 9 Liberty to Face Pair of Top-15 Teams, No. 14 Harvard and No. 13 Duke

LYNCHBURG, Va. – No. 9 Liberty is set to face a pair of top-15 teams in No. 14 Harvard and No. 13 Duke over the weekend.

The Lady Flames (4-0) will face the Harvard Crimson (2-0) at home, Friday. The contest will start at 4 p.m. at the Liberty Field Hockey Field. On Sunday, Liberty will square off with No. 13 Duke (2-1) on the road. Match time is 1 p.m. from Williams Field at Jack Katz Stadium in Durham, N.C.

Liberty is 3-0 at home so far this season, most recently topping American 1-0 in a shootout last Sunday. Meanwhile, Harvard is coming off a 3-2 win at No. 15 Connecticut. This will be the second all-time meeting between the Lady Flames and Crimson. The first meeting came on Oct. 6, 2019, a 2-1 Harvard overtime triumph is Cambridge, Mass.

Liberty and Duke will be facing each other for the ninth time. In the last meeting during the fall 2021 campaign, the Lady Flames topped the Blue Devils 5-2 in Lynchburg. Of the eight all-time meetings between the two squads, five have gone to overtime. Duke holds a 6-2 edge in the all-time series, but Liberty has won the last two games. The Blue Devils are coming off a strong weekend which included a 2-1 triumph over No. 3 Maryland and a narrow 3-2 loss to No. 2 Northwestern.

Lady Flames News and Notes

Senior goalkeeper Azul Iritxity Irigoyen was selected as the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) Division I Defensive Player of the Week. This is her third career national defensive player of the week honor.
Iritxity Irigoyen also earned BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week honors this week for the ninth time in her career. Meanwhile, fifth-year senior Bethany Dykema was tabbed BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week.
Liberty is first in the nation as a team in goals-against-average (0.46), second in the country in save percentage (.889) and defensive saves (3) and fifth in shutouts per game (0.50). Individually, Iritxity Irigoyen leads the country in goals-against-average (0.46) and ranks third among goalkeepers in save percentage (.867).
Through two weeks of the season, four different Lady Flames have earned BIG EAST weekly honors. Last week, Jodie Conolly garnered BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week recognition, and Reagan Underwood earned a spot on the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll.
Liberty's last road trip to Duke resulted in a 3-2 double overtime victory during the spring 2021 season, the Lady Flames' first-ever win over the Blue Devils. Iritxity Irigoyen made 12 saves in that match. Three days later (March 24, 2021), she earned her first career NFHCA Division I Defensive Player of the Week award.
The last time the Lady Flames hosted an Ivy League school in field hockey was when they welcomed Yale to Lynchburg on Sept. 14, 2019. Liberty prevailed 4-2 in that game.
The last time Liberty faced off against two top-15 teams in the same weekend was at the 2022 BIG EAST Field Hockey Championship. The Lady Flames downed No. 14 UConn 2-1 in the semifinals and bested No. 13 Old Dominion 3-1 in the final to capture their second straight BIG EAST title.
Dykema ranks second in school history in career assists with 36. Dykema trails only Serena Barr (38 assists, 2013-16) for the program record.

Schedule

No. 9 Liberty to Face Pair of Top-15 Teams, No. 14 Harvard and No. 13 Duke

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Players Mentioned

Jodie Conolly

Bethany Dykema

Azul Iritxity Irigoyen

Reagan Underwood