No. 12 Liberty blanks Temple 4-0 to clinch a BIG EAST tournament spot

Liberty players celebrate during Friday's 4-0 win over Temple at Liberty Field Hockey Field. (Photo by Luke Delach)

No. 12 Liberty clinched a spot in the BIG EAST Field Hockey Championship on Friday, shutting out Temple 4-0 at Liberty Field Hockey Field in Lynchburg.

The win was Liberty's sixth straight and moved the Flames to 11-4 overall and 4-1 in the BIG EAST. Liberty has qualified for the conference tournament in all 11 seasons it has played in the league. Temple fell to 6-10 and 1-4.

How it unfolded

The first quarter was scoreless. Liberty broke through late in the second, when Josefina Tomasi deflected a Clarisa Iudicello pass into the cage with 5:49 left in the quarter. In the half's final 27 seconds, Iudicello found Luna Prieri from the baseline, and Prieri finished to make it 2-0 at halftime.

Avery Pollock scored both of Liberty's second-half goals, her first career two-goal game. In the 37th minute she buried the rebound of a Dara Semmartin penalty-corner shot. At 53:36 she converted another penalty corner off Semmartin's insert to finish the scoring.

Sophomore goalkeeper Diane Saint Martin made five saves for her fourth shutout of the season. Temple's Alex Lepore stopped four shots.

By the numbers

Liberty outshot Temple 18-8, put eight shots on goal to Temple's five and earned 10 penalty corners to Temple's two. Iudicello had two assists.

What's next

UConn has already clinched the BIG EAST regular-season title and the tournament's top seed, so the Flames will enter as the second or third seed, depending on how next weekend plays out. Liberty closes its home regular season Sunday at 1 p.m. against No. 7 Duke.

See Luke Delach's full photo gallery from the game: gallery.thensmt.com