Field hockey claims home triumph over Wildcats
The No. 10 Liberty Flames field hockey team shut out the Wildcats of Villanova Oct. 6 to claim the top position in the Big East conference on its home field by a score of 6-0.
The Flames and Wildcats entered the game both 3-0 in conference play, with Liberty looking to notch its 12th win of the season, and the Wildcats their eighth.
The start of the scoring wouldn’t come until halfway through the first quarter when Flames’ senior midfielder Lexi Hosler would find another senior midfielder, Prima Iturraspe, for the first goal of the game. The initial score would be followed by senior midfielder Reagan Underwood, who found the net all on her own to put Liberty up 2-0 at the end of the first. Though it was not a pretty first quarter with the Flames giving Villanova three consecutive corner penalties in the quarter’s final minutes, Liberty’s elite defense would not allow any to find the back of the net.
The second quarter would start with a pair of quick goals — the first from graduate student forward Mili Arteta, assisted by grad student defender Bethany Dykema. Shortly after that goal, redshirt freshman midfielder Kyleigh Faust capitalized on a penalty stroke, sending one past Wildcats goaltender Emma Leppert to close out scoring in the first half.
The second half only saw two goals across the two quarters — one by Flames junior forward Tuti Dell Anna with Iturraspe providing the assist and junior middie Martu Cian finding the net to end the scoring and seal the 6-0 victory.
The Flames defense was a stone wall, blocking any potential goals off the Wildcats 10 penalty corners. Villanova, who entered the game with the highest scoring average in the Big East and ninth best in the nation, was handed its second shutout of the season. The Flames’ penalty defense has only allowed two goals in 57 attempts this season.
Liberty’s defense is headlined by senior goaltender Azul Iritxity Irigoyen, who was named the Big East Defensive Player of the Week three times this season and leads the conference in save percentage at .814 and goals against average at .80. The latter finds her ninth in the nation.
Liberty continues to carve its mark in the history of the Mountain with the best start in program history, going 11-1 overall thus far.
“Obviously (we’re) winning a lot of games, but we are never going to be satisfied with what we are doing,” Head Coach Nikki Parsley-Blocker said. “(There is) always something we can finetune.”
The team would go on to achieve an incredible feat Oct. 8, surmounting the No. 1 North Carolina Tar Heels in a double-overtime victory in Chapel Hill. The win was Liberty’s second against UNC in three seasons, and Dykema became the program’s all-time record holder for career assists, notching her 39th.
After the thrilling upset, the Flames now look ahead to the Quinnipiac Bobcats, heading to Connecticut on Friday, Oct. 13.
Spangler is a sports reporter for the Liberty Champion