DI Lady Flames dominate HTI in spring-opening exhibition series

Friday, January 17

Lynchburg, VA

1:30 PM

Liberty University Club Sports

Hockey Training Institute

Liberty forward Ellie Sarauer (8) celebrates her shorthanded goal in the third period followed by defenseman Emerson Oakes (8) as Lady Flames Head Coach Chris Lowes consults with Assistant Coach Mike Morrison. (Photos by Ted Allen)

DI Lady Flames dominate HTI in spring-opening exhibition series

1/18/2025 6:51:00 PM | Women's D1 Hockey

Liberty won Friday's first game 11-2 before getting goals from seven different players in Saturday's 7-2 triumph.

Gallery: (1-18-2025) DI women vs. HTI

Liberty University's No. 1-ranked ACHA Division I women's hockey team started the spring semester in very similar fashion as it had in the fall, with a convincing sweep of Hockey Training Institute's Tier-I travel team from Ontario, Canada, Friday and Saturday afternoon at the LaHaye Ice Center.

The Lady Flames (15-3) overwhelmed HTI in the opener, 11-2, before getting goals from seven different players in a 7-2 triumph in the rematch, including the first goal by freshman forward Chloe Lownsbury in her brief Liberty career.

"(Junior linemate) Brookelyn (Beauchamp) and I were battling in the corner by the hash marks and I just took one step and shot it and it hit the far post and went in," Lownsbury said of her goal — just 19 seconds after HTI had scored on a power play — that stretched the Lady Flames' lead to 5-2 with 2:00 left in the second period. "It feels like a great start. We've progressed a lot and coming off a strong fall semester, I am excited to be back."

Liberty was playing without senior forwards and head and alternate captains Brielle Fussy and Haley Battles, who are representing Team USA in the Jan. 13-23 Winter World University Games in Torino, Italy.

"There's big shoes to fill with them being gone and we've got a lot of good girls who are able to fill those shoes," Lownsbury said.

Senior defenseman Sammy Peebles started the scoring Saturday with a power-play goal assisted by freshman forward Presley Ellis just 3:44 after the opening faceoff. Graduate defenseman Peyton Carle doubled the advantage off a pass from Beauchamp 5:33 later before Ellis stretched the lead to 3-0 just 44 seconds after that off feeds from senior defenseman Sally Glynn and sophomore defenseman Sophia Adamek.

Freshman defenseman Isabelle Pelletier extended the edge to 4-1 off assists from sophomore forwards Ellie Sarauer and Tristan Craig late in the second period. Then in the third, Sarauer scored unassisted into an empty net at the 5:45 mark after stealing the puck from a drawn out HTI goalie and Craig capped the scoring off feeds from Ellis and freshman forward Hayley Lee with 39 seconds to play.

"Just getting the rust off your skates that first weekend back, it was fun to get all of the lines rolling and everybody back out on the ice, even without Brielle and Haley," Lady Flames Assistant Coach Madi Pinel said. "We're missing them, of course, and that was noticeable in our chemistry. We got to play a really deep bench the last two days and get all of our players some good touches in, and to get to see different pairings and different lines and all of the girls kind of came out roaring and ready to start the second semester fired up."

A former defenseman for the Lady Flames herself, Pinel appreciates the efforts the defensive pairings put in over the weekend, with the addition of freshman Jules Lefaive.

"She's of age now and she's able to play in our league games, and she scored for us (Friday), which was awesome," Pinel said. "A lot of our points came from our D this weekend, which is always really nice to see. They were doing a good job of getting pucks through and everyone else was crashing the net and going through and just moving the puck really well. It was good to see a whole team (effort), a great weekend from all of them."

Liberty will make the second of four trips to St. Louis this season when it challenges No. 6 McKendree (Ill.) University Jan. 30 at 9:15 p.m. and host No. 3 Maryville (Mo.) University Jan. 31 at 3 p.m. Then, the Lady Flames will return to the LIC to host No. 2-ranked, defending ACHA DI national champion Adrian College on Feb. 14-15, after splitting a regular-season-opening series with the Bulldogs in Michigan.

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