No. 5 Liberty Field Hockey to Face UConn, William & Mary This Weekend

LYNCHBURG, Va. – The No. 5-ranked Liberty field hockey team will face Connecticut (home) and William & Mary (away) over the weekend.

The Lady Flames (5-1, 1-0 BIG EAST) will first square off with the UConn Huskies (3-4, 1-0 BIG EAST) in their BIG EAST Conference home opener, Friday night at 6 p.m. at the Liberty Field Hockey Field. Liberty will then head east to Williamsburg, Va. to take on the William & Mary Tribe (1-5) in a road non-conference match on Sunday afternoon. Game time is noon from Busch Field.

Liberty and UConn will meet in what is a matchup of the top two teams in the BIG EAST Field Hockey Preseason Coaches' Poll. The Huskies, the defending conference champions, were picked to finish first, followed by the Lady Flames in second place. Liberty and William & Mary will square off in a clash of Commonwealth teams. The two squads have met in each of the previous four seasons.

Lady Flames News and Notes

Liberty's No. 5 national ranking is its second-best ranking in program history. The Lady Flames' highest national ranking ever is No. 4, set during the spring 2021 season. That No. 4 mark is also the best national ranking of any Liberty sport at the Division I level. The top five teams in the country in this week's Penn Monto/NFHCA Division I National Coaches Poll are No. 1 Northwestern, No. 2 North Carolina, No. 3 Virginia, No. 4 Harvard and No. 5 Liberty.
Liberty is currently No. 2 in the NCAA Field Hockey RPI listing, behind only North Carolina (No. 1).
The Lady Flames and Huskies will be meeting for the 17th time. Liberty is 6-10 all-time versus UConn. The Huskies claimed last year's regular season meeting by a 2-1 score in overtime in Storrs, Conn. The two teams met in the 2024 BIG EAST Championship semifinals, a 2-1 UConn triumph. Prior to last year's pair of meetings, Liberty had defeated UConn six straight times. The Huskies claimed the first eight meetings in the all-time series.
Liberty is 8-1 all-time in BIG EAST home openers. The Lady Flames' lone setback came last year to Temple.
Liberty and Wiliam & Mary will match up for the fifth straight season and seventh time ever. The Lady Flames hold a 4-2 edge in the series and have won two straight. Last year, Liberty shut out William & Mary 5-0 in Lynchburg.
Freshman goalkeeper Diane Saint Martin was named to the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll by the league office on Tuesday afternoon. The Paris, France native recorded a one-save shutout, her second clean sheet of the season, in the Lady Flames' 2-0 win at Quinnipiac in the BIG EAST opener.
Senior midfielder Lou Combrinck and sophomore defender Dara Semmartin lead the team with six assists apiece. Combrinck and Semmartin both rank ninth nationally and first in the BIG EAST in assists per game (1.00).
Liberty ranks in the top 25 nationally in: assists per game (No. 12, 3.00), winning percentage (No. 12, .833) defensive saves (No. 15, 2), shutouts per game (No. 17, 0.33), points per game (No. 20, 8.33), scoring margin (No. 22, 1.17) and goals-against-average (No. 22, 1.50).
William & Mary is Liberty's third opponent from the state of Virginia so far this season. Liberty is 2-0 against Commonwealth foes, including victories over James Madison (4-1, home, Sept. 3) and Richmond (4-2, home, Sept. 7). The Lady Flames will face a total of six teams from Virginia during the regular season.
Liberty has collected seven weekly awards through four weeks of the season – two offensive player of the week honors, two defensive player of the week awards, one freshman of the week accolade and two weekly honor roll selections.
Liberty is 3-0 at home and 2-1 in away games in 2025. The Lady Flames carry a seven-match home winning streak into Friday night's game with UConn, dating back to the 2024 season. Liberty has topped UConn in each of the last two regular season meetings at the Liberty Field Hockey Field (fall 2021, 2023).
Liberty (fall 2021, 2022) and UConn (2012-spring 2021, 2024) have combined to win 12 of the last 13 BIG EAST Championship titles.
This will be the Lady Flames' second home night game of the year. Liberty faced UAlbany in an evening contest (7 p.m. start) back on Sept. 12.

Schedule

No. 5 Liberty Field Hockey to Face UConn, William & Mary This Weekend

Players Mentioned

Lou Combrinck

Diane Saint Martin

Dara Semmartin