It took double overtime, but the Liberty Flames field hockey team outlasted the Maryland Terrapins to advance to Sunday’s National Championship game. No. 9 Liberty defeated No. 5 Maryland, 3-2, in double overtime thanks to a goal by Charlotte Vaanhold with 1:27 left before the match would have gone to a shootout.
“I woke up this morning and I’m like, ‘God, why me?’ I don’t deserve to be here,” Liberty head coach Nikki Parsley-Blocker said following the game. “He has given us so many gifts, and I’m like, ‘Lord, why have you allowed us this success?’ I don’t know, but He keeps opening doors. All I’m trying to do with it is just be extremely grateful. It’s a really humbling thing to be 100% honest with you. To be in this position, I think it’s a huge blessing. I’m so grateful for this opportunity.”
With the win, the Lady Flames improve to 10-2 against top 25 opponents, winning nine straight matches against ranked foes. Liberty extends its win streak to 17 straight, the longest in the country. Maryland owned a 31-16 advantage in shots on goal throughout the match, but it wasn’t enough to hold off the Flames.
“I think Maryland, you would call the dominant team, just not the winning team, that’s unfortunate,” Maryland head coach Missy Meharg said. “Statistically, it’s our game, (but) you have to be able to finish when the most pressure is on.”
The game was a defensive battle through the first half with Liberty and Maryland entering halftime scoreless. That would change in a big way in the third quarter as Liberty’s Jill Bolton broke the tie less than four minutes into the second half with a goal off an assist by Maddie Hosler as the Flames took an early 1-0 lead.
Liberty would push its lead to 2-0 later in the third quarter as Vaanhold was able to knock in the rebound goal into the back of the cage as the Flames took a commanding lead with less than a minute to play in the third quarter. The Terrapins would answer right back to make it 2-1 with 13 seconds left before the fourth quarter on a goal by Bibi Donraat. The two teams combined for three goals in less than 11 minutes after remaining scoreless through the first 33 minutes of action in the game.
The score would remain at 2-1 until Maryland was able to tie it thanks to Hope Rose’s penalty stroke goal with 4:53 left in the fourth quarter. The game would head to overtime, a second straight overtime match for Liberty as the Flames defeated No. 1 Rutgers this past Sunday in a shootout.
10 minutes of the first overtime resulted in no scoring as the match progressed to a second overtime. It looked like the Flames were headed to a second straight shootout, but that was until Vaanhold was able to score in the waning moments of the second overtime to secure the win for the Flames as the celebration on the frozen field turf in Ann Arbor, Michigan ensued.
“It’s a different vibe when you are at the Final Four,” Parsley-Blocker said. “The NCAA has done a phenomenal job. When you walk in, you feel the aura, you feel the presence, you feel the weight or the heaviness of this moment that I didn’t necessarily feel last weekend.”
Liberty will play the winner of Northwestern and Harvard on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. in a game that will be televised on ESPNU. Liberty faced Northwestern earlier this season, falling to the then No. 5 ranked Wildcats, 4-3, in a game played in Lynchburg back in September. Liberty head coach Nikki Parsley-Blocker played her collegiate field hockey at Northwestern.
The field hockey team continues their historic run. After becoming the first Liberty Athletics team to reach the final four of its respective sport at the NCAA Division I level, the Flames will now be the first Liberty team to ever play for a national championship.
“Make no doubt about it, I didn’t come here to get second,” Parsley-Blocker said. “I came here to win, and we came here to win a national championship. It’s kinda funny, people are like, ‘Are you excited to go to the Final Four?’ And, I’m like, ‘I want to win a national championship. I will be more excited if we do that.'”
*photo courtesy Liberty Athletics
