The Flames will have their Feb. 28 game at ALC rival Virginia Tech, a rematch of a 12-7 loss in the final fall semester scrimmage at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields, circled on their calendars. (Photos by Kendall Tidwell)
This spring, No. 3-ranked men’s lacrosse will face five teams that ended 2023 season in MCLA Top-10
11/15/2023 5:47:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse
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Liberty will host nine of its 14 regular-season games and play the ALC Tournament at Lynchburg City Stadium for the third year in a row.
An action-packed home schedule awaits Liberty University's men's lacrosse team this coming spring, which will start nearly as early as last season with a Feb. 3 scrimmage at Southern Virginia University in Buena Vista.
The Flames, who finished the 2023 season at 15-4 and ranked No. 3 in the MCLA Division I, will play nine of their 14 regular-season contests at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields.
Then, the semifinals and championship game of the Atlantic Lacrosse Conference (ALC) Tournament will take place for the third time in a row at the City Stadium Complex in Lynchburg from April 27-28 before Round Rock, Texas, hosts the MCLA Division I National Championships for the third year in a row.
"We'll have a really strong slate of nine home games, which is awesome," Liberty Head Coach Kyle McQuillan said. "We try to format our schedule to where every other year it is pretty heavy on travel. I am looking forward to taking on teams like Chapman, Utah Valley, and Northeastern — all first-time opponents at home — and South Carolina, a team we lost to (12-10 at USC) last year that our guys are looking forward to getting the opportunity to meet again."
The Flames will open ALC play by traveling to Philadelphia to face Temple on Feb. 10 before hosting Northeastern, which finished the 2023 season ranked No. 12, on Feb. 17 and the No. 13 Gamecocks, the 2019 and 2022 national champions, on Feb. 24.
Then on Feb. 28, in a rare Wednesday night matchup, the Flames will travel to Blacksburg, Va., for a rematch with Virginia Tech, the reigning ALC Tournament champion that won the fall semester-ending scrimmage at Liberty on Oct. 22. At last season's MCLA National Championships, the Hokies finished runner-up to Concordia (Calif.) University, the team that ended Liberty's season decisively in the Flames' first national semifinals appearance at the Division I level.
"(The Golden Eagles) really found their stride in the national tournament, though Northeastern had them on the ropes in the first round and it took last-minute heroics for Concordia to pull out the win," McQuillan said.
That fact makes Liberty's Feb. 17 home opener against the Huskies a bit daunting as they return the majority of their starters from last season. But neither the Flames nor Virginia Tech will have to deal with Concordia this season as it is transitioning to the NCAA Division II level.
"Every year, we like to try to challenge ourselves and make our schedule harder than the year before, but that is starting to prove difficult," McQuillan said. "We try to schedule anybody and everybody, with an emphasis on teams ranked nationally in the top 10. We would have liked to get Concordia on the schedule, but unfortunately, we won't have the chance."
In early March, Liberty will host four opponents in nine days — Connecticut, which ended its 26-game home winning streak in 2017, on March 2, followed by ALC foes West Virginia on March 3, Pittsburgh on March 8, and North Carolina State on March 10.
On its Spring Break trip, Liberty will face BYU, which ended last season ranked No. 8 in the nation, at a neutral site in Jacksonville, Fla., on March 14 before facing No. 9 Florida at the same site on March 15. The Flames defeated the 2021 national champion Cougars for the first time in program history on their Spring Break road trip to Utah last March, which helped catapult them to the No. 1 ranking for the second season in a row before their loss to USC dropped them to No. 3.
Utah Valley, which lost to the Hokies in the first round at nationals and ended up at No. 7 last year, will visit Liberty on March 21. In the 2021 National Invitational consolation game, played in Round Rock, Texas, in place of the MCLA National Championships due to COVID-19, the Flames rallied from an 11-4 halftime to defeat the Wolverines 14-13 in overtime after falling to BYU in the quarterfinals.
Chapman, which lost to Virginia Tech in the quarterfinal round of the MCLA National Championships last season and finished at No. 4 in the MCLA rankings, will visit Liberty for its annual Midnight Mayhem game on March 23 before the Flames close out their regular season with back-to-back ALC contests — at home against Clemson on April 7 and at JMU on April 14.
After winning the inaugural ALC Tournament at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields in 2021, the Flames have lost to Clemson in the semifinals and Virginia Tech in overtime in the final of the past two at City Stadium, which provides a neutral site but a near home-field advantage.
"The ALC has agreed to bring the tournament back to City Stadium for the next two years as it has enjoyed the experience Lynchburg has been able to provide," McQuillan said. "Lynchburg is a great host and City Stadium is a great venue, and geographically, it makes a lot of sense as Lynchburg is central to a lot of the teams in the conference. We are excited to be able to play it there for the next two years."
For now, the Flames are focused on wrapping up their Fall Ball season that started in October and crowning a champion for their indoor box lacrosse league. The team's 40-man roster was divided into four sides for six-on-six matches in the Liberty Multipurpose Center, the new indoor practice facility for a number of NCAA Division I and Club Sports programs next to the soccer practice fields.
In a double-elimination playoff format, the Flames finalists will play their last two games on Wednesday and Friday before Thanksgiving Break.
"Box lacrosse is very physical and that's great because develops skills sets that are unique," McQuillan said. "A lot of the games get pretty chippy, but they are fun and very competitive. You don't have that much space, and there is more leeway when it comes to contact. It's been good, because it has taught us to be more physical and be able to take a little more punishment."
He is hoping to get out of the fall semester healthy as possible as the emphasis has been on building team culture while loading up on strength and conditioning workouts in preparation for the spring season.
"We have a few guys out due to injury, and we may look at bringing in a couple new bodies for the spring semester," McQuillan said, noting that senior midfielder Keaton Mohs is nursing a shoulder injury and sophomore attack Tanner Wallen has also been sidelined this fall. "We will soon shift toward our winter training regimen and we want our guys to get rested and recharged over Christmas break because the spring schedule will be a whole new animal and much more of a grind when it comes to investing time and energy."
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer Sophomore faceoff specialist Lance Bruno will try to get the Flames off to a fast start during a heavy home schedule in the spring.
"We'll have a really strong slate of nine home games, which is awesome," Liberty Head Coach Kyle McQuillan said. "We try to format our schedule to where every other year it is pretty heavy on travel. I am looking forward to taking on teams like Chapman, Utah Valley, and Northeastern — all first-time opponents at home — and South Carolina, a team we lost to (12-10 at USC) last year that our guys are looking forward to getting the opportunity to meet again."
