LYNCHBURG, Va. – A five goal run from the Flames over the opening seven minutes of the second half ignited a 20-13 win for fourth-seeded Liberty over fifth-seeded Longwood Saturday afternoon from the Liberty Lacrosse Stadium in Big South Championships quarterfinals action.

Kayla Foster, Brianna McCaffrey and Big South Freshman of the Year Carly White both had hat tricks in the first half, with White going on her own three-goal streak over the first 10 minutes to stretch a Liberty (6-12, 4-3 Big South) lead from 1-0 to 4-1 over Longwood (7-11, 3-4 Big South) at the 21:28 mark. Foster and McCaffrey each scored five goals to lead the Flames while both adding an assist.

"Unfortunately today just wasn't our day," said head coach Elaine Jones, who has led the Lancers to a Big South quarterfinals appearance in each of her first five seasons on campus. "We had a great game plan to start, but when we lost Stephanie Roberts 10 minutes into the game, we didn't adjust very well."

"We have a young team and losing [Roberts], a strong ball handler as well as our top scorer, definitely made our task of winning much more challenging," Jones said.

Foster got the scoring started for the Flames, tickling the twine just under two minutes into the contest before adding back-to-back goals at the 13:02 and 10:41 marks. McCaffrey came on strong in the second half, erupting for five goals and an assist.

Liberty dictated the pace as they controlled almost every statistical category including shots (46-17), shots on goal (32-15), draw controls (19-16), clears (14-12), turnovers (15-22) and caused turnovers (18-9). Four of those Lancer turnovers came on the first four possessions, allowing the Flames to get out to the early 4-1 lead, a deficit the Lancers were unable to erase throughout the contest.

In between the pipes, Imani West collected 12 saves in the opening half for her seventh double digit save performance and first since a 13 save effort on April 8 at High Point.

"Defensively, we had some lapses that gave Liberty easy goals, even though Imani [West] came up with huge saves time after time," Jones said. "I completely credit Coach Parcell and Coach Butler's goalie training as they have done an amazing job all year working with Imani, Chelsea [DiIonno], and Laura [O'Toole]."

"Our defense held multiple times, but our attack wasn't always able to execute and capitalize so we couldn't gain and keep consistent momentum," Jones said. "That being said, our players battled to the end, which is always good to see."

Sophomore defender Cassie Angeles tallied two late first half goals to cut the deficit to 9-6 at the 3:07 mark of the opening half, but that's as close as it would get the rest of the afternoon. Angeles paced the Longwood attack with her four-goal day while Kaitlin Luccarelli added three, Molly Barkman scored two and Riley Dolan, Roberts and Lexi Davis all added one goal each.

"After losing 80% of our scoring from last year, I'm pleased that our sophomores stepped up and our freshmen came in and did well," Jones said. "To have Molly Barkman, a freshman, get almost 100 draws in one season, including 11 today, is phenomenal. Kaitlin Luccarelli has also been very consistent in the scoring column all season."

Saturday's loss ended back-to-back road victories for the Lancers within Big South play, and also ends the careers of Longwood seniors Madelynn Rollins and Chelsea DiIonno. Rollins finishes her senior season with 36 ground balls, 14 draw controls and 30 caused turnovers playing all 18 games, while DiIonno started three contests in the net, playing over 200 mintues, collecting 21 saves, scooping up 12 ground balls and forcing three opponent turnovers.

Liberty advances to face top-seeded and regular season champion High Point next Friday, May 5, in semifinals action at High Point with the winner getting a spot in the finals two days later.

With the conclusion of its season, Longwood returns all of their midfielders and attackers for next season, including All-Big South selections Barkman, Luccarelli, Roberts, West and Dolan.

"While the loss will sting for a bit, I have no doubt that the players will use it and the season as motivation to work hard this summer, continue their progression, and come back next year older, wiser, and hungry to redeem themselves," Jones said.

Barkman finishes her freshman campaign with 27 goals, 18 assists, 97 draw controls, 41 ground balls and 23 caused turnovers while Luccarelli led all Longwood freshmen with 38 goals and a team-high 55 points after Saturday's three-goal, two-assist performance. Roberts led the team with 41 goals in a breakout sophomore season and an NCAA top-10 shooting percentage with a .631 mark.

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