Liberty Field Hockey Previews 2014 NorPac Tournament
11/5/2014 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
The East Division No. 1 seed Liberty Lady Flames field hockey team opens the 2014 NorPac Championship Friday with a semifinal matchup with the winner of No. 2W California and No. 3E Appalachian State. The contest is slated to begin at 2:30 p.m. ET and will be one of seven matches played over the course of the three-day tournament at Field Hockey Turf on the campus of the University of the Pacific.
The defending NorPac Tournament champions finished the regular season with an 11-7 mark, despite starting the season 1-4, and went 4-0 in conference play to claim their third straight NorPac East Division title.
Two of the Lady Flames' 11 wins on the season came against Top 20 ACC opponents Wake Forest and Louisville. On Sept. 19, No. 12 Wake Forest traveled to Lynchburg for the Lady Flames' first ACC matchup of the season. Liberty secured a 2-1 victory which was part of an eight-game winning streak.
Nine days later, Liberty squared off against No. 11 Louisville. This particular contest was not decided until the very last second, when Mallory Cuccio slammed the door shut on the Cardinals' hopes of overtime, winning 2-1.
Sarah Gipe led the team in scoring during the regular season with a personal-best 15 goals. To go along with her goal total, Gipe recorded a personal-best and team-leading 36 points.
Ashlee Krulock paced the team in assists with eight and notched 10 goals on the season, finishing second on the team in that category. Krulock finished the regular season with 28 points, coming in second on the team behind Gipe.
Mallory Cuccio picked up a career-best 11 wins in a single-season. Along with her wins, the Colorado Springs, Colo. native recorded 72 regular-season saves, for the program's second most saves in a single season.
How to Follow the Lady Flames
Follow Liberty at the NorPac tournament by clicking the appropriate links on the field hockey schedule/results panel of LibertyFlames.com. Live stats will be provided by StatBroadcast and the live video will be provided by Pacific's Media Relations Department.
A Glance at the Golden Bears
California owns a 7-9 record, and a 2-2 mark in the NorPac West Division. The Golden Bears have lost four straight contests coming into the NorPac Tournament, including a 1-0 loss to Pacific in the season finale in Stockton, Calif., on Saturday.
Liberty and Cal have met twice before, with both contests being played last season. The Golden Bears defeated the Lady Flames 1-0 in Berkeley, Calif. in the third game of the season. However, Liberty won the game that mattered most, defeating Cal in the quarterfinals of the 2013 NorPac Tournament by a score of 3-1.
A Glance at the Mountaineers
Appalachian State finished the season with a 5-14 record and notched one NorPac East win against Pacific on Oct. 25 in Boone, N.C. The Mountaineers are led offensively by Taylor Cimbalist, recording five goals on the season.
The Lady Flames and Mountaineers have squared off seven times, with Liberty holding a 6-1 series advantage. Liberty has won six consecutive contests against Appalachian State, outscoring the Mountaineers 42-5 during the six-game span.