Lady Flames beach volleyball opens spring season with weekend sweep

Friday, February 28

Lynchburg, VA

TBD

Liberty University Club Sports

Richard Bland College

The Lady Flames roster has 16 student-athletes, eight of which are LU newcomers

Lady Flames beach volleyball opens spring season with weekend sweep

2/19/2025 12:00:00 PM | General, Women's Beach Volleyball

Liberty finished 5-0 in competition last weekend, now prepares for upcoming showdown with DI programs

Gallery: (2-19-2025) women's beach volleyball

Liberty University's women's beach volleyball kicked off the 2025 campaign with a solid outing in Laurinburg, N.C., last weekend, only dropping one of 20 sets in a round-robin tournament against four other squads.

Led by first-year Head Coach Payton Carter, the Lady Flames notched wins against NAIA programs Spartanburg (S.C.) Methodist College, host St. Andrews (N.C.) University, and Salem College, as well as junior college competitor Wake Tech (N.C.) Community College.

After a mostly uneventful fall semester in which the team had only one home tournament to prepare for the regular season, Liberty came out firing on all cylinders with 5-0 sweeps of SMC, Salem, and Wake Tech, only dropping the fifth-pairing match to St. Andrews. Seniors Grace Cropper and Brooke Elliott led the charge as the Lady Flames top pairing, confidently holding the opposition at bay for the first three matches before sitting out against Wake Tech (Elliott instead played an exhibition match alongside sophomore Kate Richards).

Boasting a much different squad than last year with eight of Liberty's 16 student-athletes being transfer students or freshmen, the Lady Flames relied heavily on the upperclassmen to set the tone for tournament play.

"Our seniors, specifically Grace Cropper and (Brenna Rae) Bentley, led well this weekend and helped get those newcomers comfortable and told them how tournaments work, since we hadn't seen one yet," Carter said.

Liberty's women's beach team photographed during practice. — Liberty women's beach volleyball huddles up at a team practice

"It's super exciting that (the new players) get that senior leadership over them this year, and having those freshmen for the next few years is really exciting because it does start that winning culture and a culture of victory altogether," she added. "Our spiritual culture is raising as well, and they are doing a lot of stuff outside of volleyball together to grow closer as a team and closer to the Lord. That's fun to watch."

In addition to competing together on the court, Liberty's players also meet for weekly Bible studies, form prayer groups at practice, and even pray with other teams before matches.

"This past weekend we had a really good opportunity to witness to other schools," Carter said. "A lot of the opponents were really receptive to praying together before the match and we're very thankful for that. It's good to see from a coach's standpoint that my girls were showing initiative there and not only playing volleyball as an act of worship to the Lord, but also witnessing to (their) opponents."

This upcoming weekend, the Lady Flames will travel to Loveland, Ohio, to compete in the Grand Sands Tournament against four NCAA teams (Eastern Kentucky, Austin Peay, Morehead State, and Tennessee Tech). While Liberty faced little blocking in last week's competition, Carter expects a much different challenge in Ohio.

"Going into this weekend, we'll see a lot of heavy hitters, blockers, and people who are good at placing shots outside the middle of the court," she said. "We'll practice a lot of defense this week, more so than in the past. The mindset is still the same of, 'Go in. Do your best. Win." We know that we're a good team, especially after this past weekend. We're excited to show those schools what we can do."

While on the trip, the Lady Flames plan to stop at the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Ky., for an additional time of team building.

Liberty 5, SMC 0