Liberty Women’s Beach Volleyball Team Celebrates Senior Night April 11

The Liberty University Women’s Beach Volleyball team celebrated its Senior Night April 11 by pulling off a clean sweep against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

Going into the night, Head Coach Payton Carter was confident in her senior players’ abilities to pull out multiple victories for their final match as Lady Flames. 

“We have had a lot of success this year, … so we’re ready to finish strong and honor our seniors,” Carter said. 

Before the event started, Liberty seniors were honored with a small ceremony before the match with both friends and family in attendance. Carter gave a speech to commemorate some of the girls’ accomplishments while on the team. 

The face off against the Lady Tar Heels ended in five straight victories for Liberty.  

“We just really wanted to show up to finish strong and also have a lot of fun with our team,” Senior Grace Cropper said.  

Senior Sydney Whitfield and sophomore Eliza Griffin had a close victory, winning the game 2-1 with final set scores of 21-15, 19-21 and 15-8.  

Seniors Brenna Rae Bentley and Taylor Bates took the win with two consecutive set victories, 21-18 and 21-7, leaving the final score 2-0 in Liberty’s favor. 

Junior Gabrielle Olson and sophomore Kinley Phillips took to the court to secure another 2-0 victory for Liberty with a first set score of 21-13 and a second set score of 21-8. 

Freshmen Josephine Malone and Caroline Meehan claimed Liberty’s third 2-0 victory of the day. Both individual sets scored 21-13. 

Finishing the clean sweep, senior duo Cropper and Brooke Elliot won their match 2-0, winning both sets with scores of 21-12 and 21-13. 

“I’ve never played for a team that has so much consistent joy and comradery throughout the season. There’s always highs and lows, but this season we have all gotten along so well. Throughout the entire season I could not have asked to be surrounded by a better group of girls,” Elliot said. 

The Lady Flames will host and compete in the Hill City Tournament May 17 at 8 a.m. 

Stewart is a sports reporter for the Liberty Champion.