Lady Flames fall short to UNC
#4 seed North Carolina outlasted #13 Liberty, 71-65, in the first round of the Women’s NCAA Tournament last Saturday. The Lady Flames cut their deficit to 6 on four different occasions in the 2nd half, but could not get any closer. Liberty was led by Ashley Rininger’s 19 points and 13 rebounds. Karly Buer also added 14 points. The Lady Flames fall to 2-16 all-time in the NCAA Tournament with their only wins coming in 2005.

Baseball update
The Flames dropped 2 of 3 to open Big South play last weekend at Radford. They did pick up the win on Sunday behind a complete game, 3-hit shutout by Jared Lyons. Lyons is now 3-0 on the season. Liberty will look to rebound this weekend with 3 games at home against Presbyterian.

Football schedule finalized
As mentioned earlier this week, the Flames have finalized the 2015 schedule with a trip to Southern Illinois. Liberty will travel to Carbondale on September 26th to face the Salukis who are a member of the Missouri Valley Football Conference. This will be the first ever meeting between the two schools with a return trip scheduled for 2019. The Flames will not play at Williams Stadium from September 19th until October 24th and have only 5 games scheduled for the 2015 season.

Jacob Wilson to visit
2016 quarterback prospect Jacob Wilson will take an unofficial visit to Liberty on Saturday. Wilson has not been offered by the Flames yet, but could pick one up as the year progresses. The Flames are in desperate need of a quarterback as part of the 2016 class after not signing one in 2015.

Updates to football roster
A few names have been added to the 2015 spring football roster including Richard Queen. Queen is a 6’3″, 280-pound redshirt-sophomore who has transferred from UMass. He is expected to be in the mix at center. Other new names include Jermaine Copeland, Williams Fiordelise, Marquis Fitzgerald, T.J. Tillery, and Jordan Williams.

Wes Alcegaire visits Hofstra
Wes Alcegaire, the former Liberty wing who transferred to Daytona State Junior College a season ago, will be making a visit to Hofstra this weekend. He had a very productive year in JUCO as he averaged 17.1 points and 6 rebounds per game while shooting 37.4% from 3-point range. Wes has picked up offers from Hofstra, Tennessee Tech, and Kennesaw State.

Other sports

  • The softball team has now surpassed their win total from a season ago with 29 games remaining. The Lady Flames went 3-3 this week with wins over Princeton, Quinnipiac, and Hampton while opening up the brand new Liberty Softball Stadium.
  • The women’s tennis team is having their best season in recent memory. The Lady Flames improved to 14-2 and 4-0 in conference play with wins over Charleston Southern and Campbell.
  • The men’s tennis team is 3-0 in conference play after they beat Coastal Carolina and Presbyterian this past week.

FlameFans thread of the week
All you need to know about Ted Cruz’ visit to Liberty can be found on FlameFans in this week’s FlameFans thread of the week, Ted Cruz to LU.