Women’s ultimate sweeps its round-robin pool in home half of Commonwealth Cup

Saturday, January 25

Charlottesville, VA

9:00 AM

Liberty University Club Sports

Winta Binta Vinta

Liberty put its new offensive and defensive systems into play for the first time at the Winta Binta Vinta tournament Jan. 25-26 in Charlottesville, Va.

Women’s ultimate sweeps its round-robin pool in home half of Commonwealth Cup

2/20/2025 8:30:00 PM | Women's Ultimate

Liberty upset the top three-seeded teams and finished 5-0 on the Liberty Lacrosse Fields after going 2-4 at a season-opening tournament at UVA.

Ultimate-Liberty-Lacrosse-Fields — The Lady Flames finished 5-0 in this past Saturday's and Sunday's Commonwealth Cup played at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields.

Seeded fourth out of 12 teams, Liberty University's women's ultimate team finished 5-0 to win its half of this past weekend's Commonwealth Cup tournament at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields, with the other six teams competing at the Smith River Sports Complex in Axton, Va.

The Lady Flames opened play by upsetting No. 3 Davenport (Mich.) University by a 10-3 final. They then proceeded to knock off No. 1 Tennessee, 10-7, before dominating No. 2 Virginia Tech, 8-3, No. 5 Richmond, 6-2, and No. 10 Catholic 11-1.

"It was nice to be playing on our home turf," Head Coach Bethany (Fowle) Weldy said. "We had to warm up in the rain, but once we started playing on Saturday, it had stopped. It was a bit windy for our games Sunday, but nothing like later in the day when the men's team played. We stayed to our systems, played them well, and were able to gain a lot of yards."

She said freshman Mallory Clark had the most defensive knockdowns while junior co-captain Marina Abila scored the most points and graduate handler Grace Wilson posted the highest plus-minus overall for the tournament.

"We had a lot of people cut deep and (freshman) Madi Clark was our main cutter," Weldy said. "Marina also had a lot of scores, and probably gained the most yards with her catches."

She said the Lady Flames were much more efficient in converting in the red zone than they had been in the spring season-opening Winta Binta Vinta on Jan. 25-26 in Charlottesville.

"What helped us, which was something that hurt us in our first tournament, was we were more patient when we got the disc near the end zone," Weldy said. "We ran our offense cleaner and could actually score."

At UVA, Liberty finished 2-4, losing three matches by one point — against Georgetown (10-9), JMU (8-7), and Penn State (8-7).

"We lost all of those against teams that in the past couple years have definitely beaten us, so it was promising to see that we can take those teams to universe point, knowing we will see them later in the season and will be even stronger," Weldy said.

Liberty also defeated UNC Wilmington, 11-2, and the host University of Virginia's B team, 13-0, in that tournament, losing to UVA's A team, 11-4.
"All of our new people have really learned the system quickly and have been working hard and have really improved a lot," Weldy said, noting there are more newcomers than returning players on this season's roster. "The last two tournaments have shown where we might need improving, and before our next tournament, we should be able to hone in on our systems and the small things, as our team verse (Luke 16:10) talks about, being 'faithful in the little things.'"

Liberty also enjoyed a successful reunion with former players with the current Lady Flames defeating the alumna by a 14-9 final in the Alumni game organized by former Head Coach Jonathan Mast and played in mid-January in the Liberty Multipurpose Center.

"Mallory Clark scored the most goals (5) had a really good (defensive knockdown) in the end zone where she had to get in front of someone taller than her to stop a deep throw," Weldy said. "The alumni named her the MVP, and (her sister) Madi Clark scored three goals and did a lot on the offensive end to keep us moving."
Wilson, meanwhile, distributed a team-high eight assists and made a team-high four defensive breakups.

"Grace Wilson and Marina Abila always anchor us and keep us afloat, handling the disc," Weldy said. "(Sophomore) Sarah Dickerson had some really good Ds at the UVA tournament as well, and in the alumni game. Also, we moved (junior) Ella Woods into the handler role this semester and she's been doing really well there and helping out on offense."

The Lady Flames will next travel to the regular-season-ending Atlantic Coast Open (March 22-23) in Axton, Va., also site of the Virginia Conference Championships (April 12-13) and Atlantic Coast Regional Championships (April 26-27) for tournaments held simultaneously with the men's events.

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer