Liberty’s fall sports are officially underway all over campus, and we will provide weekly updates on all of the teams throughout the semester.
CROSS COUNTRY
Allie Zealand won the women’s 6K in Huntsville, Alabama to help lead the Liberty women’s cross-country team to the CUSA Championship. Meanwhile, the men’s squad took second place.
Zealand covered the course in 19:53.0, winning by nearly 30 seconds. She was the first of eight Lady Flames to cross the finish line among the top 21 finishers as Liberty posted a dominating 64-point victory over runner-up New Mexico State. The Lady Flames recorded the second-largest margin of victory in meet history, trailing only their own 66-point triumph from 2024. Liberty has claimed back-to-back women’s cross country titles for the first time since the spring and fall of 2021 in the ASUN.
The men, who were attempting to defend their 2024 cross country title, finished with 55 points, 18 behind Middle Tennessee. Andrew Schultz (sixth place) paced four Flames inside the top 11 as Liberty posted its 23rd straight top two finish in men’s cross country spanning three leagues (Big South, ASUN, CUSA).
Zealand’s sophomore season will extend as she placed fifth in the women’s 6K at the NCAA Division I Southeast Regional Championships, advancing to the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships on Nov. 22 in Columbia, Missouri. Zealand led the Lady Flames to a 10th place finish in the women’s team standings, while the men’s squad took 13th at Panorama Farms. Zealand shattered her own Liberty women’s 6K record with a 19:14.3 clocking, good for fifth place out of 256 women’s runners.
The 2025 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships will take place on Nov. 22 at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Missouri. Both races will be televised live on ESPNU, with coverage beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern. Zealand’s 6K race will go off at 10:20 a.m. Eastern.
#6 FIELD HOCKEY (17-3, 7-0 Big East)
The outstanding season for Liberty’s field hockey team came to an end, falling to No. 10 Syracuse in a shootout, 3-2, in the NCAA Division I Field Hockey Championship Sweet 16 at Princeton’s Bedford Field. In a dramatic game that saw the Lady Flames even it up at 2 with less than a minute to play in regulation, followed by two, scoreless 10-minute overtime sessions, the Orange scored on four of their five shootout attempts for the win, as Liberty only managed successful conversions on 2 of 4 attempts.
Syracuse struck first early in the second quarter, with Bo van Campen finding the left side of the cage in the 19th minute. Liberty answered just before halftime on a Kyleigh Faust rebound goal on a penalty corner. In the final minute of the third period, the Orange converted on a counterattack opportunity after a Liberty penalty corner, scoring in transition with Aubrey Turner finding Hattie Madden at the 44:43 mark.
In the fourth quarter, Liberty looked for the equalizer and pulled goalkeeper Diane Saint Martin with 3:13 left. Liberty finally broke through for the game-tying goal with less than a minute to play in regulation on its sixth and final penalty corner of the frame. After Julieta Tornati’s initial shot was blocked, Tornati collected the ball in the left side of the circle and sent a cross towards the front of the cage. Josefina Tomasi got a touch on the ball, sending it into the cage.
WOMEN’S SOCCER (14-4-4, 6-0-2 CUSA)
Liberty’s women’s soccer team’s season came to a close with a 2-1 loss at No. 8 seed Clemson in the first round of the 2025 NCAA Women’s Soccer Championship. Clemson struck first despite Liberty maintaining the majority of possession out of the gate. The Tigers capitalized on a second-chance opportunity in the 19th minute on a corner kick. Clemson’s Elle Bissinger turned in a header from just in front of the frame. Less than a minute later, Ivy Garner responded with her 16th score of the season. Clemson took the late lead in the 82nd minute from Taylor Leib, another second chance opportunity.
Garner’s goal extended her goal-scoring streak to seven consecutive games. In the final eight contests, the senior totaled nine goals and four assists. Garner concludes her Liberty career with 81 games played and ranks second in program history in all-time goals (34), assists (23), and points (91). She finished one goal shy of tying the single-season goals record held by Nancy Davis with 17 in 1999.
MEN’S SOCCER (9-5-6, 4-2-4 OVC)
No. 3 seed Liberty fell to No. 2 seed Houston Christian in the Ohio Valley Conference Semifinals in St. Charles, Missouri, 1-0. The Huskies struck for a goal early in the first half and then held the Flames at bay the rest of the way. In a game between two evenly matched teams that were separated by one point in the conference standings during the regular season, a goal by the Huskies during the third minute by leading scorer Ryan Okerayi proved to be the difference. Each team had six shots in the first half while Liberty outshot HCU, 8-7, in the second half.
On Tuesday night, Liberty announced the hiring of Scott Wells as the team’s new head coach as he will replace Kelly Findley who announced his retirement earlier this season. Wells comes to Liberty from Gardner-Webb where he was the head coach for the past three seasons. Over the prior two campaigns, Wells led the Runnin’ Bulldogs to back-to-back 13-win seasons, a Big South Championship, an NCAA first round win, and a top 10 ranking. The 2024 season included a pair of wins over top 25 programs, defeating High Point twice during the year, including a win to capture the team’s first ever Big South Conference Championship. Following the championship run, Gardner-Webb opened up the 2024 NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship with a 1-0 first round win over Oregon State. This past season, Wells guided Gardner-Webb to a national ranking as high as No. 7, the first time any Gardner-Webb athletics program has ever been ranked inside the top 10 in a national ranking. Gardner-Webb finished the 2025 season with a 13-3-2 record and was one of the last teams left out of the NCAA Tournament, finishing with a RPI of 35. Prior to his time at Gardner-Webb, Wells was the associate head coach and lead recruiter for UNC Greensboro, helping them to the Elite 8 in 2022 and a national ranking as high as No. 5.
VOLLEYBALL (20-9, 8-8 CUSA)
Liberty lost in straight sets on both Friday and Saturday at home against defending CUSA champion Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers clinched a share of its seventh straight CUSA regular season title while the Lady Flames finish in a tie for fifth place in the CUSA standings.
The Lady Flames are the No. 5 seed in the CUSA Volleyball Championship, hosted by FIU in Miami. Liberty will take on No. 4 FIU in the quarterfinals on Friday at 2 p.m. with the winner taking on the winner of No. 1 UTEP and No. 8 Missouri State on Saturday at noon. Liberty dropped both regular season matches with the Panthers this year, falling in four sets both teams in games played at Liberty Arena in late October.
