Liberty's 2023-24 men's ultimate team placed sixth in its first tournament in Charlottesville before dropping a 12-11 decision to an alumni team over Homecoming. (Phots by Eric Carson)
Flames ultimate sixth at UVA tournament, narrowly falls to alumni team over Homecoming Weekend
11/10/2023 2:58:00 PM | Men's Ultimate
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Liberty has more newcomers than returning players on this season's 22-man roster, but they are catching on quickly and making an immediate impact.
Liberty University's men's ultimate Head Coach Kevin Habermas has more newcomers than returning players to work with on this year's 22-man team.
"We're extremely young, but I am excited for the spring because these guys are starting to catch on quickly," Flames Head Coach Kevin Habermas said. "We have a really quick team, with a lot of athletic guys who need to put in the work to learn what the other guys who have played their whole lives already know. We're getting better as a program, and I am excited for the future."
Two of the newer standouts are freshman Rupert Armentrout, the only newcomer who played prior to joining the team, and sophomore Andrew Peters. Habermas said both played very well in Liberty's first tournament, the Cavalier Cup hosted by Virginia on Oct. 21-22 in Charlottesville, where the Flames were seeded eighth and finished sixth out of 16 teams.
"After losing a lot of people this past spring, I was pleasantly surprised to get sixth," Habermas said. "The newcomers are picking it up quicker than anticipated, so that's good. We're practicing constantly, so this tournament was key for us in getting experience, facing different types of defenses and offenses."
Senior handler and head captain Ian Rankin looks to pass past alumnus Jake Byron.
In pool play, the Flames upset No. 3-seeded Georgetown, a team they lost to twice last season, winning by an 11-4 score. They also defeated Christopher Newport University, 13-2, and Pittsburgh's B team, 11-7, before losing to the top-seeded team composed of players from JMU, Virginia Tech, and Virginia, 12-10, to place second out of four teams in their pool.
In bracket play, Liberty lost a high school team from the Washington, D.C., area ranked No. 2 in the nation before falling to sixth-seeded Delaware, 10-7, in the fifth-place game.
Freshman cutter Caleb Shirks, a cousin of John who graduated in the spring, led Liberty with a +17 plus-minus ratio factoring his assists, scores, and defensive breakups against his throwaways and drops. He led the team with 13 goals while senior captain and top handler Ian Rankin paced the Flames with 25 assists to go with his 13 defensive breakups and 10 goals.
Junior Luke Carlsen and senior Shawn Messick exceled on defense with Carlsen breaking up seven passes and Messick four.
"The fall semester is all about building chemistry and teaching basics so that in the spring, we can jump into more strategy," Habermas said. "We are figuring out what people do best, refining skills, and seeing where all the pieces fit properly as far as where people thrive — at cutting, defense, or offense."
More than 90 alumni and current men's and women's players participated in last Saturday's Hill City Hatter hat tournament at the Liberty Mountain Intramural Complex. The event served as a fundraiser for the women's team, which added to its Giving Day total that fell short of its projected goal.
Alumnus Ethan Allison flicks a forehand pass around Flames sophomore Paul Fasciano.
Habermas noted that his team that included his wife, Krista, Rankin, sophomore Paul Fasciano, Kyle Canfield, Brandon Lison, alumna Anna High, and current sophomore women's players Victoria Clark and Ella Padgett, among others, finished 5-0 to win Saturday's hat tournament.
Then on Sunday, the men's and women's programs played their annual alumni games with a 15-man alumni team holding off a strong second-half comeback bid by the Flames men's team to prevail 12-11.
"It was the strongest alumni team that our men's team has put together," Habermas said. "We came out and played pretty poorly in the first half and went down, 8-4, before we came back and made it more of a game."
By Ted Allen/Staff WriterLiberty's alumni team held off a second-half surge by the current Flames to prevail, 12-11, Sunday at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields.After the fiercely competitive contest between the current players and alumni, they joined forces for a friendly Flames family photo.
