The much anticipated 2026 season for Liberty softball will officially begin this weekend at the NFCA Division I Leadoff Classic in Clearwater, Florida. The Lady Flames will play five games over the course of three games, including three matchups with top 10 opponents. No. 21 Liberty opens the season on Friday at 4 p.m. against No. 4 Tennessee.
“I can’t wait,” said Liberty outfielder Paige Doerr. “I can’t wait to compete against another team and go right at it.”
The Lady Flames finished the 2025 season with a 50-15 record, setting a new program for single-season victories. Liberty won both the Conference USA regular season and tournament titles for the second year in a row. The team made history at the 2025 NCAA Bryan-College Station Regional, winning two out of three games against No. 1 Texas A&M to earn its first ever Super Regional appearance. The Lady Flames would fall to Oregon in two games in the Super Regional, one of the teams Liberty will face in the opening weekend in Clearwater.
This weekend’s slate will feature two Women’s College World Series teams from last year in Tennessee and Oregon, as well as a Clemson team which made the Super Regionals.
“I feel like there’s a lot of girls on the team right now that know what it’s like,” said Liberty pitcher Kaylan Yoder of the tough schedule the Flames will face beginning this weekend. “We have a lot of girls that are returning and were in the Super Regional. I’m excited about coming out and playing top 25 teams from the jump.”
Doerr had similar thoughts.
“Coach Dot does a great job setting us up with a lot of great teams at the beginning of the season. With that comes a lot of adversity. All teams face adversity at the beginning of the season. It’s going to be really important for the way we face adversity to help us have our new identity. We are a completely different team than last year so finding our identity as a team and finding that fast is what great teams do.”
Following last season’s success, Liberty has been ranked in the preseason top 25 of several polls. The Lady Flames return five starters plus several other key members of last year’s team. Liberty is one out of two teams outside of the Power Four conferences to compete in NCAA Regionals all five years since after the CoVID-shortened 2020 season, joining Miami (Ohio). The Lady Flames are also one of five NCAA Division I softball teams to win 16 or more conference games in every full season since 2016, joining Cal State Fullerton, Florida State, Oklahoma and UCLA.
The team has several veteran leaders to lean on but will also have to break in several new players to the team that will be expected to have big roles this season. Early season showcases like this weekend in Clearwater will give Coach Richardson and the Flames a great opportunity to see what they have and where some tweaks need to be made.
“Are they wanting to play for each other,” Richardson said of what she’s looking out of her team this weekend. “Do they play with such freedom that they are who t hey are and are they willing to do it together? If you have those two ingredients that culture is a culture of success. Are they going to be intimidated? Are they going to be putting so much pressure on themselves?”
This will be the third year in a row in which Liberty has played at the Eddie C. Moore Complex in Clearwater. The Lady Flames opened the 2024 season at the NFCA Division I Leadoff Classic, facing four of the five teams they will play this weekend. Last year, Liberty competed at the 2025 Shriner’s Children’s Clearwater Invitational, picking up a win over No. 12 Alabama. Liberty also opened the 2020 season by competing in both the NFCA Division I Leadoff Classic and the Clearwater Invitational.
“Games are showtime,” said head coach Dot Richardson. “It’s showtime. You are what you are. You’re prepared. Your training is there. You’ve got what you got. I look forward to seeing what we have.”
Liberty will spend its first two weeks of the season away from home. Following this weekend in Clearwater, the Lady Flames will remain in Florida taking on Florida State on Tuesday night in Tallahassee at 6 p.m. Liberty then heads to Tuscaloosa, Alabama for the Bama Bash where the team will play five games in three days against Alabama, Purdue, and Georgia Southern. The Lady Flames open up the home portion of their schedule in the Liberty Softball Classic which begins Feb. 20.
Most of the opening weekend NFCA Division I Leadoff Classic will be streamed for free on Game Changer with the exception of Saturday’s game against Missouri which will be on MLB Network.
“We expect to win,” Yoder said of the opening week. “We don’t come here and expect to lose. We expect to win. I’m expecting to leave Florida with an unblemished record, that’s my expectation because who doesn’t want to win. Winning is fun. Winning is awesome.”
Weekend Schedule
Friday, Feb. 6, 4 p.m. vs #4 Tennessee (Game changer)
Friday, Feb. 6, 7 p.m. vs #9 Clemson (Game changer)
Saturday, Feb. 7, 1 p.m. vs Missouri (MLB Network)
Saturday, Feb. 7, 4 p.m. vs #5 Oregon (Game changer)
Sunday, Feb. 8, 10 a.m. vs Notre Dame
