Men’s ultimate breaks seed at Mid-Atlantic Warm-Up in Williamsburg, hosts alumni game Saturday

Saturday, January 27

Williamsburg, VA

9:00 AM

Liberty University Club Sports

Mid-Atlantic Tune Up

Graduate Joshua Duke dives to make a catch against the Cedarville (Ohio) University Swarm in a tournament last spring in Axton, Va., where the Flames and Lady Flames both will be playing next weekend.

Men’s ultimate breaks seed at Mid-Atlantic Warm-Up in Williamsburg, hosts alumni game Saturday

2/9/2024 5:18:00 PM | Men's Ultimate

Liberty finished 4-3 and in 10th place out of 16 teams in its spring season opener in late January and will travel to Axton, Va., for the Commonwealth Cup next weekend.

Liberty University's men's ultimate team opened its spring season over the last weekend in January at the Mid-Atlantic Warm-Up hosted by the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg.

Seeded 11th out of 16 teams, the Flames went 4-3 and finished 10th overall after placing second in their four-team pool, narrowly missing an opportunity to advance to the championship quarterfinals with a loss to Richmond in a crossover game.

In Saturday's pool play, Liberty defeated Rochester Institute of Technology 13-9 before losing to Carnegie Mellon University 12-9, and rallying from a 7-3 deficit to beat Johns Hopkins, 9-8, on a universal point.

The Flames, who woke up by 3:45 a.m. to travel from Lynchburg to Williamsburg in time for their 8 a.m. opener against RIT, were spent after that comeback win and were bitten by the Spiders, 12-7.

"We had played three games in a row, before we had a two-hour break before we played Richmond, which was just coming off a loss to JMU," Liberty Head Coach Kevin Habermas said. "We looked exhausted, and they played well. That (defeat) automatically put us in the bottom bracket."

In Sunday's consolation bracket, the Flames defeated the University of Mary Washington, 12-9, before upending the University of Pennsylvania, 11-8, and falling to Connecticut in the ninth-place match, 12-10.

Graduate Joshua Duke led Liberty with what Habermas called an "incredible" 26 plus/minus rating, which factors total scores, assists, and defensive interceptions or knockdowns as pluses and drops or throwaways as minuses. He was followed by sophomore Emerson Sites-Byers, who totaled a plus-13, and senior captain Ian Rankin, who ranked among the Flames' top performers.

"For being such a young team, we are ahead of schedule," Habermas said. "A lot of those teams were really good, including UConn. When we played (the Huskies), they had just lost to the team that ended up winning it all, on a universal point. We played well overall, other than the game against Richmond, and are starting to turn some heads. We've got to keep building on it and learn from our mistakes. For the younger players, experience will be the biggest thing, and getting used to game speed."

Senior John Caruvana is the Flames' other captain while some of the more promising newcomers include freshmen Rupert Armentrout and Caleb Shirk, who was unable to compete in the tournament due to illness.

The Flames will next compete at the Commonwealth Cup at the Smith River Sports Complex in Axton, Va., next Saturday and Sunday.

Liberty's men's team will compete alongside the Lady Flames, who opened their season by matching their seed with an eighth-place finish at the Jan. 27-28 Winta Binta Vinta hosted by the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where they beat UVA's B team, 9-1.

This Saturday, Liberty's men's and women's teams will participate in a 4-on-4 co-ed hat tournament at the Liberty Multipurpose Center, starting at 9 a.m., before separate women's and men's games pitting current players against alumni teams in 7-on-7 play will take place at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m., respectively.

"That will be a completely different game, and a good way for the alumni and current team to play together, get to know each other, and compete in a fun tournament," Habermas said, noting that 29 alumni men's players have signed up, nearly twice as many as are on the Flames' travel roster. "This should get them prepped for the Commonwealth Cup, and allow them to have a little more fun."

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer