No. 13 Liberty Field Hockey returns to NCAA tournament with bout against No. 2 Maryland

After securing its second straight BIG EAST title on Sunday, the Liberty Field Hockey team now sets its eyes on the NCAA National Championship as it heads to the first round this weekend.

The team made school history last year by becoming the first-ever Liberty team to compete in a national championship game.

The Lady Flames will be looking to finish the 2022 campaign by hoisting the national championship trophy after falling just short last season with a tough 2-0 loss to Northwestern in the title match.

While the Lady Flames seem poised for another postseason run, the journey to this point has been far from perfect.

With the loss of last year’s senior class, including 2021 NFHCA Division I National Player of the Year Jill Bolton, it should be expected that the team may face some adversity adjusting. Several injuries, however, worsened the situation further and the team that lost only three games in 2021 dropped seven games prior to postseason play in 2022.

On Tuesday, junior goalkeeper Azul Iritxity Irigoyen spoke about how much the team’s postseason conference success means in light of early struggles.

“It means a lot also because we worked so hard to get to the point we are at,” she said. “It was such a hard season. We saw so many ups and lows. So, it’s exciting that we got to do it even though we had a rough season.”

During the chaotic season, faith has served as the anchor for this team. Bethany Dykema, a senior defender on the team, noted that focusing on God has helped keep her grounded.

“Because this season has kind of been up and down, the one thing that is constant is who we’re playing for,” she said.

Despite a slightly worse record than last season, Liberty has still cemented its name as a top field hockey program because of its success in 2021.With that recognition comes an extra challenge of increased competition.

“All these teams that in the past we have beaten year after year are now wanting to play us as hard as they can because we went to a national championship and if we can do it, so can they,” Dykema said. “So, I think it does put a big target on our back. But we’re OK with that. We like the adversity.”

As the players prepare to march into battle against an array of different teams on the national scale, they must turn to each other for support.

“It’s us against the world at this point, so we have to lean into each other and really support each other,” Dykema said. “Ask for help if you need it. It’s a lot of seeking out help before you get to that point where you feel like you’re lost and chaotic or things like that.”

Liberty will begin the national championships on Friday with a game against No. 2 Maryland, the team the Lady Flames beat in the semifinals in 2021. Not only should this matchup provide a great test for Liberty, but it will also serve as a rematch with the Terps looking to exact revenge for last season. Liberty players expressed jubilation at the opportunity to again face off against Maryland, however they refuse to look too far into the future and instead focus on the immediate.

“We need to take it one step at a time and focus on practice today,” Dykema said. “Starting there. Not thinking about Maryland, thinking about what can we do to get that 2% better today, because that’s going to set us up for success on Friday when we play Maryland.”

Iritxity Irigoyen echoed the words of her teammate.

“We’re not thinking already of the final,” she said. “It’s game by game. Day by day. We’ll see what happens but first we have a game on Friday. We’re not going to think of the final. We’re going to think of the game on Friday, and today we are going to think of the training of today.”

Flames fans, accompanied by cheerleaders, Sparky, and band members, gave the team a send-off on Wednesday afternoon as the players headed for the buses.

As the hours dwindle until the first round, Dykema expressed confidence in the skillsets inherent to the team.

“Everyone wants to beat us but nobody wants to play us,” she said. “We’re a hard team to play because of our energy, we’re physical, we work really hard.”

No. 13 Liberty will face No. 2 Maryland in the first round of the NCAA National Championship in College Park, Md., Nov. 11 at 12 p.m. The game will be streamed on Big Ten Plus. Follow the action at LibertyFlames.com.