Men’s ultimate team, seeded 15th, places third at Atlantic Coast Open

Saturday, March 22

Axton, VA

8:00 AM

Liberty University Club Sports

Atlantic Coast Open

Liberty's men's ultimate team, which features 15 first-year players on its 23-man roster, has developed quickly and appears ready to contend for a Atlantic Coast Regional bid with a fop-four or top-five finish at the April 12-13 Virginia Conference Championships in Axton, Va..

Men’s ultimate team, seeded 15th, places third at Atlantic Coast Open

3/28/2025 12:10:00 PM | Men's Ultimate

Liberty finished 4-0 in Saturday's pool play, including a 14-7 upset of No. 2 Duke, before winning two of thee matches in Sunday's playoff, including the consolation final over UNC Charlotte.

Seeded 15th out of 20 teams in this past Saturday's and Sunday's Atlantic Coast Open at the Smith River Sports Complex in Axton, Va., Liberty University's men's ultimate team was the surprise of the tournament.

The Flames upset No. 2 Duke, 14-7, to finish 4-0 in pool play before knocking off No. 4 UNC Charlotte, 11-6, in the consolation final to place third.

Virginia Tech's top-seeded A team went undefeated, topping UNC Charlotte, 13-12 in the semifinals, and No. 6 Appalachian State, 14-9, in the final, after the Mountaineers upended Liberty in the semis.

"Our first two (spring) tournaments, facing 40 mph winds, we didn't do very well and got crushed in the (USA Ultimate DI men's national) rankings," Liberty Head Coach Kevin Habermas said, noting the Flames moved up 97 spots in the rankings this week, from 208 to 111.

In Saturday's pool play, Liberty edged Massachusetts' No. 10-seeded B team, 11-10, and No. 7 George Mason, 10-8, before doubling up Virginia Tech's No. 18-seeded B team, 12-6, and the Blue Devils, 14-7.

Junior cutter Emerson Sites-Byers scored five times in a row midway through the Duke game, enabling the Flames to pull away.

"Duke's coach punted his clipboard on the third, so I isolated Emerson against them after that, just to take them out of the game mentally, and he scored two more points in a row," Habermas said.

The Flames started Sunday's playoffs by overcoming an early 3-0 deficit to defeat No. 8 Lehigh, 12-10, sending them to the championship semifinals.

"We were up on Appalachian State, 10-8, before they came back to beat us, 15-12, after they threw a solid defense at us," Habermas said.

With freshman handler Micah Moore sidelined by a broken and dislocated foot after a car accident last week, the Flames relied more on primary handler Ian Rankin, a senior who distributed a team-high 29 assists.

Freshman Jack Anders also received a lot more playing time over the weekend and finished with a team-best plus-16 rating and a team-high 11 defensive breakups.

"Jack Anders was really good at short D, playing like a middle linebacker in football, and he has adjusted well there," Habermas said, noting freshman Reese Trumbo played solid man-to-man defense.

Sophomore cutter and co-captain Rupert Armentrout paced the offense with 13 goals, followed closely by Sites-Byers with 12.

"We try to be flexible with our lineups and creative with who's on the field," Habermas said, noting co-captain Luke Carlsen flexes back and forth between offense and defense and fellow seniors Andrew Peters and Harrison Ohmsieder will do cutting and handling, based on the opposing defensive line. "We need to have a deeper team, and we have had some people step up at the perfect time of year."

The Flames feature only eight returning players on a 23-man roster. Of the 15 first-year players, only Moore, fellow freshman Greg Perez, and sophomore Isaiah Riddle had previous competitive ultimate experience coming into this season.

"A lot of times, when you have 15 new players, you have to spend a lot of time working on mechanics and working on offenses and defenses and it doesn't click until the late spring," Habermas said. "For a lot of these players, things are starting to click on the field, which is nice to see going into the playoffs. Things are starting to shape up and guys are developing roles."

He said preparing to face different defensive formations and strategies will be an emphasis in the Flames' upcoming practices.

"There are a lot of defenses we can face against club teams, not just zone and man, but so many nuances in every single defense, so you have to learn a lot of concepts of how to beat each one," he said. "Appalachian State threw a good zone defense against us, a really aggressive one. We just need to prep to see that we don't see a new defense and get caught off guard."

Complete results are available online.

Liberty will return to Axton for the April 12-13 Virginia Conference Championships, where No. 32 University of Virginia and No. 34 William & Mary will be two of the favorites along with No. 43 Virginia Tech, a team the Flames defeated for the first time in program history this past fall, and No. 69 JMU. Other conference members include No. 156 George Mason, Radford, and No. 252 VCU.

"The conference is really strong," Habermas said. "Any one of top five teams could win it. We're in that mix, we just have to play a really consistent game. Our goal is to get top three in our conference. We have what it takes to get there, we've just got to put it all together."
A top-four or top-five finish in the conference, based on the number of bids offered, will qualify the Flames for the Atlantic Coast Regional Championships back in Axton from April 26-27.

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer