DII Lady Flames blank St. Thomas to finish 2-1 in their pool; Mebs posts fourth shutout

Thursday, March 14

St. Louis, MO

4:15 PM

Liberty University Club Sports

University of Saint Thomas

Freshman forward Cora Williams overtook the Lady Flames season scoring lead with her third goal of the tournament in the last minute of the first period against St. Thomas. (Photos by Ted Allen)

DII Lady Flames blank St. Thomas to finish 2-1 in their pool; Mebs posts fourth shutout

3/14/2024 10:36:00 PM | Women's D2 Hockey

Liberty won the first two games at the ACHA Division II National Championships in the history of the team, and will return 11 freshmen and sophomores next year.

Gallery: (3-14-2024) DII women's hockey vs. St. Thomas

Knowing that it had already been eliminated from pool play contention before the start of Thursday's third and final game against the University of St. Thomas didn't deter Liberty University's ACHA Division II women's hockey team, which celebrated the second national tournament victory in program history with a 2-0 triumph in Plager Arena at the Centene Community Ice Center.

The Lady Flames finished 2-1 in their pool, which was clinched by Providence (R.I.) College after its 5-1 win over Delaware on Thursday morning.

"It was a good run," Liberty Head Coach Rena Leone said. "Just because we couldn't win our pool didn't mean we were going to play any different. The girls were in it more to come out and win and show that we deserve to be here, especially playing the No. 3 in the West because we were coming in as the No. 4 team in the Southeast. I feel a lot of people thought we weren't going to be as good as we were, so we had to prove ourselves here. For our first show at nationals for this entire team, they wanted to walk away with two wins rather than two losses. They knew what we needed to do and they did it."

After being assessed nine penalties in Wednesday's 4-3 overtime win over Delaware, the Lady Flames (13-7-3) were only called for three against St. Thomas and capitalized on the first two of four assessed to the Tommies (13-3).

Skating on a 5-on-3 power play late in the first period, freshman forward Cora Williams, who scored the first two goals against the Blue Hens, netted the game winner against St. Thomas by unleashing a shot from the top of the left circle that skipped past goalie Maddie Mootz just 27 seconds before the first intermission.

"She's been on fire," Leone said of Williams (13 goals, 4 assists on the year), who overtook the team scoring lead with her three goals in the tournament, surpassing sophomore defensemen Kate Walhof and Julieanne Nye and forwards Isabel Gracia, a junior, and senior Izzy Crossman, who were tied for first going in. "It's been awesome to see. Defense was definitely our backbone (but) our offense has been finding their legs in the last six or seven games. We rolled all of our lines and we had everyone playing, so everyone was just ready to roll."

After a tornado warning in the Maryland Heights area delayed the start of the second period by nearly an hour, Liberty added an insurance goal midway through the third when junior forward Gracia finished in the right crease off an assist from Crossman with 11:49 remaining in regulation.

"We came out kind of flat for the second period, so the third period we had to pick it up," Leone said. "We would have been rolling in the second had it not been for the delay."

Senior goalie Kylie Mebs, who formerly played on Liberty's Division I women's team, made her first start in goal in more than three months due to injury and recorded 22 saves to record her fourth shutout of the season, lowering her goals-against average to an even 1.00.

"We just got Mebs back, she got cleared two weeks ago and we were able to play all three and have fresh goalies for each game," Leone said.

Mebs plans to return for the fall semester and may start graduate school after that, and has enjoyed extending her career as long as she has.

"I really have enjoyed my time on DII right now," she said. "I absolutely love my teammates. I would do anything for them out there."

She credits Leone for leading the team through adversity that kept them out of the past two national tournaments when they arguably deserved to go.

"It's been amazing," Mebs said. "Last year, we got a little bit ripped off so it was nice to finally make it here. Rena really just took it to another level this year. She's a very dedicated coach and she's been amazing in organizing everything. I give a lot of credit to our whole coaching staff and this amazing group of girls. I love my goalie partners, too. It was really awesome to play with them here."

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer; Video by Patrick Strawn/Club Sports Director of Video & Media