Liberty University Club Sports Athletics
Lady Flames outshoot Bearcats, 54-7, go to 2-0 in pool play
4/16/2021 12:00:00 AM | Women's D1 Hockey
In Friday night's second round of ACHA Division I National Championships pool play at Maysa Arena in Minot, N.D., graduate defenseman Sally Hoerr helped set up the first three goals for Liberty University's top-ranked ACHA Division I women's hockey team in a 4-1 victory over No. 6 McKendree University.
The two-time-defending national champion Lady Flames outshot the Bearcats by a 22-2 margin in the first period but went into the intermission knotted at 1-1.
"We tied the first period and won the next two," Liberty Head Coach Chris Lowes said, noting that the Lady Flames outshot McKendree, 54-7, for the contest. "Their goalie is one of the top in the league and they battled hard. This is their first trip to nationals, so hats off to them for battling through. I am proud of our girls. They got what we needed to get done. We battled through a little adversity and put ourselves in good position for (Saturday)."
In her first game back from an injury that had sidelined her for the entire semester, freshman forward Linzy Jedrzejek, won the puck at the top of the right circle and sent a pass across the high slot to Hoerr. Her shot from the top of the left circle was tipped by senior forward Alexis Smibert, stationed in front of the cage, past Naomi Leasck into the back of the net with 13:25 left in the first period.
Less than two minutes later, Bearcats forward Camryn Scully netted the equalizer on a point-blank putback from the left side past Lady Flames freshman goalie Amanda Storey, tying the game at 1-1 at the 11:28 mark.
"Our PK gave up a goal," Lowes said. "That happens when you take penalties. Our execution on special teams was a little sloppy. We know we're going to give up shots on the PK, but we can't give up second and third shots. That is something we need to address."
Hoerr notched her second assist off a shot from the top of the left circle with 16:05 left in the second period when sophomore forward Yannick Truter recovered the rebound and slipped a backhanded shot past Leasck that glanced off the right post and barely crossed the goal line.
Two and a half minutes later, the Lady Flames struck again by cleaning up the rebound of Hoerr's shot from near the blue line, with Truter collecting the puck in the right circle and sending a cross-crease assist past junior forward Alexis Lauber in front to graduate forward Val Manchak. She fired a wrist shot from the inside edge of the left circle past Leasck, extending Liberty's lead to 3-1 with 13:32 to go in the period.
That's how the score remained until senior defenseman Sydney Pierce took an outlet pass from Jedrzejek out of the Lady Flames' defensive zone and went in for a breakaway score with 5:19 remaining in regulation, extending Liberty's lead to 4-1.
The Lady Flames may need to win Saturday's 5 p.m. EST game against No. 5-seeded Adrian College to advance to Sunday's Final Four because, if they don't, there is a potential for all three teams in their pool (Liberty, Lindenwood, and Adrian) to end up 2-1. In that case, it would come down to a tie-breaker with the two teams with the least number of goals allowed advancing.
"We gave up our first goal tonight, so we are in a good spot there compared to Adrian and Lindenwood in our pool," Lowes said, noting that Liberty went 4-0 against the Bulldogs by a combined score of 24-7 this season, but Adrian upset No. 2-seeded Minot State in Thursday's first round. "They're playing good hockey."
Liberty will start freshman Kylie Mebs in goal against the Bulldogs in a rematch of their 2018 national championship final, won by the Lady Flames.
"We're 2-0 and tomorrow, we want to go out and finish pool play right," Lowes said.
Every game in the four divisions of this year's ACHA National Championships is being streamed live on the Hockey TV website.
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer; Video by Patrick Strawn/Club Sports Director of Video & Media
