No. 8 Liberty to Face Maine, No. 15 UMass on Opening Weekend

LYNCHBURG, Va. – No. 8-ranked Liberty will open its 2026 season with a pair of games in Maine over the weekend.

The Lady Flames, the BIG EAST Conference preseason favorite, will first square off with the Maine Black Bears on Friday afternoon at 12 p.m. On Saturday at noon, Liberty will take on the No. 15-ranked UMass Minutewomen in a neutral-site showdown. Both contests will be played at the UMaine Field Hockey Complex in Orono, Maine.

Liberty has never faced both Maine and UMass in field hockey.

Lady Flames News and Notes

Liberty, the defending BIG EAST champion, was picked to finish first in the league this year in the BIG EAST Field Hockey Preseason Coaches' Poll. This is the fourth time in the last five years that the Lady Flames were picked to win the conference in the preseason poll.
Liberty received six of the seven available first-place votes and 36 points to top the listing. Connecticut, last year's BIG EAST runner-up, received the other first-place vote and 31 points for second place. Rounding out the coaches' poll were Old Dominion (third, 23 points), Temple (fourth, 20 points), Villanova (fifth, 18 points), Providence (sixth, 13 points) and Georgetown (seventh, six points). Quinnipiac is no longer in the BIG EAST Conference after joining the NEC as an associate member.
Liberty is ranked eighth in the Penn Monto/NFHCA Division I Preseason National Coaches Poll. This fall, the Lady Flames will face seven teams who appear in the 2026 preseason rankings, including: No. 2 North Carolina (Oct. 11, home), No. 5 Virginia (Sept. 11, home), No. 6 Duke (Oct. 25, home), No. 10 Miami (Ohio) (Sept. 19, home), No. 11 Connecticut (Sept. 25, away), No. 15 UMass (Saturday, neutral site at Maine) and No. 20 Saint Joseph's (Sept. 4, away).
Liberty's No. 8 preseason national ranking is its second best preseason ledgering in program history. The 2022 squad was ranked No. 6 in the preseason poll.
Junior defender Dara Semmartin was named the unanimous Preseason BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year and a unanimous Preseason All-BIG EAST team selection. Sophomore goalkeeper Diane Saint martin received unanimous Preseason BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Year recognition as well as unanimous Preseason All-BIG EAST team distinction. Joining Semmartin and Saint Martin on the Preseason All-BIG EAST team are junior forward Josefina Tomasi and sophomore defender/midfielder Julieta Tornati.
The Lady Flames (17-3, 7-0 BIG EAST in 2025) enter the 2026 season as the defending regular season and tournament champions in the BIG EAST. Liberty has claimed three of the last five BIG EAST Championship titles and four of the past five BIG EAST regular season crowns.
UMass concluded the 2025 season with a 16-4 overall record and 8-1 MAC mark, finishing the year in the No. 13 slot in the final national poll. In 2024, the Minutewomen reached the NCAA Final Four for the first time since 1992. Maine finished the 2025 season with a 7-12 overall record and 1-4 America East mark. The Black Bears' last America East Tournament title came in 2021.
Liberty is 11-4 all-time in season openers and has claimed victories in eight straight openers. Last year, the Lady Flames erased a 3-0 deficit at No. 5 Duke in the opener, coming back to top the Blue Devils 4-3.
The Lady Flames return nine of 11 starters from last year's BIG EAST Championship title-winning squad. Semmartin, a NFHCA All-America second team honoree a season ago, and Saint Martin, last year's BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Year, lead the charge. Other returning starters include, Tomasi, Tornati, Paris-Gail Isaacs, Morena Giacosa, Mia Santana, Kyleigh Faust and Zoé Gaillard/Avery Pollock (split starting time).
Of Liberty's 25-player roster, 10 are newcomers or transfers. Those 10 include: Clarisa Iudicello (M/F), Pia Iapichino (F), Teshawn De La Rey (M), Alexia Guedouar (M/F), Ntsopa Mokoena (F), Ashlee Bucksar (F – Delaware transfer, spent two years at Liberty in 2023 and 2024), Martu Sánchez Ros (D), Danielle Lavery (D/M), Allena Jaworski (GK) and Natalie Harrison (M/D).
In 10 years in the BIG EAST, Liberty sports a 62-13 BIG EAST regular season mark and has made seven appearances in the BIG EAST Championship title game, with three crowns. Liberty has advanced to the NCAA Field Hockey Championship six times (2013, 2014, fall 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025) and in four of the last five seasons.
Liberty finished among the top 20 teams in the nation in 10 statistical categories in 2025: winning percentage (No. 4, .850), goals-against average (No. 5, 0.92), shutouts per game (No. 7, 0.40), scoring margin (No. 9, 1.74), assists per game (No. 10, 2.70), save percentage (No. 11, .768), penalty corners per game (No. 12, 7.60), points per game (No. 13, 8.20), goals per game (2.75) and scoring average (No. 18, 2.66). The Lady Flames led the BIG EAST in nine of those 10 metrics.
Individually, Semmartin led the BIG EAST last year in assists per game (0.80), ranking ninth nationally in the category. She totaled 16 assists, establishing a new single-season program record in the process. Saint Martin ranked fourth in the country in goalie win-loss percentage (.850), fifth in goals-against average (0.88) and eighth in save percentage (.775).

Schedule

No. 8 Liberty to Face Maine, No. 15 UMass on Opening Weekend

Players Mentioned

Ashlee Bucksar

Teshawn De La Rey

Kyleigh Faust

Morena Giacosa

Alexia Guedouar

Natalie Harrison

Pia Iapichino

Paris-Gail Isaacs

Clarisa Iudicello

Allena Jaworski

Danielle Lavery

Ntsopa Mokoena

Avery Pollock

Mia Santana

Dara Semmartin

Josefina Tomasi

Julieta Tornati

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