Never before has a Liberty Flames athletics team won a national championship at the Division I level. Liberty’s field hockey team is hoping to end that streak this weekend at the NCAA Field Hockey Championship at Phyllis Ocker Field Hockey Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Liberty advanced to the Final Four thanks to a dramatic 3-2 victory over No. 1 Rutgers in a shootout this past Saturday afternoon. This weekend marks the first-ever Final Four appearance, not just for Liberty field hockey but for any Liberty Athletics team at the Division I level as the Flames are just two wins away from a national title.

No. 9 Liberty (19-2) will meet will meet No. 5 Maryland (15-6) on Friday at noon on ESPN+. The other national semifinal will feature No. 7 Northwestern (16-5) and No. 12 Harvard (17-1) at 3 p.m. The two winners will meet for the national championship on Sunday at 2 p.m. on ESPNU.

“It’s a little surreal,” Liberty head coach Nikki Parsley-Blocker said of her team making it this far. “But, like we’ve been saying for so many years, if we can just get into the tournament, I think we could have done this back in 2019 but they didn’t let us in, we didn’t get the automatic qualification. As cool as it is, I believed that we could do this.”

Liberty’s field hockey team has flirted with success at a national level for several years now under Parsley-Blocker’s guidance. The Flames have become a nationally respected program including being ranked in the top 10 for most of the past two seasons, but this season Liberty has broken through to the next level where it is a legitimate threat to win a national championship.

Competing in the Big East, the Flames had to go toe-to-toe with UConn, a program who has six national championships and has advanced to the Final Four 15 times. The Huskies were the top dog in the Big East and Liberty struggled to dethrone them. That tide began to shift this past spring when Liberty defeated UConn, 4-0, on March 14 for the first ever win over the Huskies. That win seemed to open the floodgates for this program.

“I think it started last year when we beat UConn for the first time because it was no longer something that we had to convince them that they could do, but they knew that they could do (it),” said Parsley-Blocker. “UNC is another marquee win. I don’t have to convince them that they can beat a storied program like UNC because they know that they can beat a storied program like UNC. I think probably last season things started really clicking for us.”

Despite that win over UConn back in the spring, a 13-3 overall record, and a top 10 national ranking, the Flames did not receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament after falling to Old Dominion in the Big East Tournament semifinals. That loss and eventual snub from the NCAA Tournament helped fuel the team this summer and into this season.

“It’s been in the back of my head constantly,” senior Jill Bolton said of the disappointing end to the spring 2021 season. “Last year, coming up short, not even making it to the championship, losing to ODU, for me that’s something that fuels me and I work harder knowing that we couldn’t get there. I think that’s how a lot of these girls mentalities work. If they don’t reach what they want, they’re just going to keep pushing and pushing harder and harder. For us, to finally get an NCAA bid, it’s all we needed was once chance and here we are making it to the Final Four.”

This season, the Lady Flames are 9-2 against top 25 opponents and have won eight straight matches against ranked foes. Liberty’s wins this season include triumphs over nationally-ranked Stanford, Duke, North Carolina, Kent State, Old Dominion, and Temple. The win over the Tar Heels was the program’s first ever win over UNC, the three-time defending national champion. It was North Carolina’s first ever loss at home since 2014, a streak of 62 straight wins and the first ever defeat at Karen Shelton Stadium which opened in 2018.

After having never beat UConn, Liberty has now won three straight over the Huskies, including a 1-0 shutout win over UConn in the 2021 Big East Field Hockey Championship title game to end UConn’s reign of nine straight Big East Championships. It secured the first Big East title in program history for the Flames as Liberty advanced to the NCAA Field Hockey Championship for the first time since 2014 and just the third time in school history.

Getting to the NCAA Tournament wasn’t enough for this team. The Lady Flames shut out A10 champions No. 11 Saint Joseph’s, 2-0, in the Sweet 16 last Friday, the second ever NCAA Tournament win in program history. The Hawks have made four NCAA Tournament appearances in the last five seasons. On Sunday, against No. 1 and host Rutgers, Liberty picked up its first ever win against the top ranked team in the country after falling in its first six opportunities.

Defense has been the calling card for this field hockey team. Liberty has held its opponents to one goal or less in 15 of 21 games this fall. Sophomore goalkeeper Azul Iritxity Irigoyen has six shutouts this season and nine in her career, which is tied for the second most in program history.

On Friday, Liberty will meet the storied Maryland program. The Terrapins will be playing in its 20th Final Four after defeating No. 10 Syracuse, 2-1, to reach the national semifinals. Maryland has eight national championships in program history. The Lady Flames will be facing Maryland for the second time ever. The Terrapins topped Liberty, 4-1, on Oct. 8, 2017 in College Park, Maryland in the only previous meeting.

“I’m excited to play Maryland,” said Bolton who was a freshman when Liberty played Maryland in 2017, scoring the only goal for the Flames in that match. “They are a great team. They work hard. I know they are a gritty and relentless team. Playing Big Ten this past weekend with Rutgers, just shows that they will leave it all on the field and they won’t stop until they get what they want. I love playing a competitor like that. If we play how Liberty can play, it will be a great day on Friday.”

This entire season, the Lady Flames have a team motto of open hands. It started following the conclusion of the 2021 spring season when Liberty was left out of the NCAA Tournament despite feeling as though they had the resume to be included. Coach Parsley-Blocker wanted her team to trust God regardless of what the final season circumstances ended up being.

“Are you going to trust God when things are going good and when things are going bad,” Parsley-Blocker stated of the open hands motto. “Having open hands, Lord, you truly have a plan for this program. I want the timing to be my timing, last spring, when I thought we should have 100% been in the NCAA Tournament, but that door was closed for us.We wanted to make amends with that. Ok, Jesus, whatever your plans are for this group, we’re going to trust You.”

From being on the outside looking in, to finally break through the UConn hurdle and getting into the NCAA Tournament, the Lady Flames now have a clear path to the first ever national championship in school history, regardless of sport. Just two more wins and this team will etch their names in the school’s history books.

“It definitely makes me feel emotional,” Parsley-Blocker said of playing for a national championship. “There’s no doubt about that. I always say there’s nowhere else in the country I’d rather be coaching because I think we can win a national championship in a counter-cultural way. I have no greater pride than being able to say that I get to freely and openly represent Jesus while doing it.”

Before the potential national championship match on Sunday, Liberty must knock off Maryland and extend the longest winning streak in the country which currently stands at 16 straight. The Lady Flames’ only two losses came to top 10 opponents Louisville, 3-1, and fellow Final Four participant Northwestern, 4-3, back in early September in consecutive games. Liberty says they are grateful for the opportunity that they have this weekend, beginning with Friday’s match against the Terrapins.

“Soaking in the moments and having a tremendous amount of gratitude because there are some coaches that go their entire career and never make a Final Four,” explained Parsley-Blocker. “That’s not something we’re going to overlook. It’s an incredible blessing. We are super grateful for the opportunity.”

The players share the same emotions. One of the best players in school history, Jill Bolton hopes to finish her career with a national championship. She has rewritten the field hockey record book at Liberty during her five seasons, owning five records (games started, games played, goals, points, and shots), third in assists and game-winning goals. She has been selected first-team All-Big East five times.

“It’s truly an honor,” Bolton said of reaching the Final Four. “I couldn’t imagine my senior fall any greater than this. Going to the Final Four, closing out my hockey career like this, it’s special. It’s truly a gift is what it is.”

“You have earned your right to be here,” Parsley-Blocker said of her team entering this weekend. “You have put yourself in this position. You have done the hard work. Now, just go out with open hands in freedom. It’s not one last time, it’s one more time. We get to go out one more time and play a game that we love with people that we love.”

*photo courtesy Liberty Athletics