The Shadow
LYNCHBURG, Va. (VR) – Liberty (15-11, 7-7) closes out the regular season with a pair of home matches against Delaware (8-16, 3-11), Thursday and Friday at Liberty Arena.
Quick Hits
- Liberty enters the weekend tied with FIU and New Mexico State for fifth in CUSA standings. The Lady Flames can finish anywhere between third and eighth seed for the 2026 CUSA Volleyball Championship, held next Friday through Sunday in Bowling Green, Ky. Delaware has been eliminated from contention.
- Since posting a pair of home wins against Sam Houston, Oct. 23-24, the Lady Flames went 1-3 in the next four matches, including 1-1 at Kennesaw State and 0-2 at Western Kentucky.
- Liberty leads CUSA in conference-only digs per set (15.64) and assists per set (12.84), ranking second in points per set (17.18), hitting percentage (.255) and kills per set (13.56) in CUSA play.
- Paige Overcash scored a match-high 17 kills in three sets last Saturday at WKU. She ranks second in CUSA with 3.80 kills per set in conference play, while Jenna Otts ranks seventh with 3.22 kills per set.
- Jenna Otts needs 14 kills to reach 1,000 for her career, between her time at Gardner-Webb and Liberty. Molly Littlefield, also a Gardner-Webb transfer, recorded her 1,000th career dig on Oct. 3 at Jacksonville State.
- Melis Ural has collected 10 or more digs in 22 out of the last 24 matches and ranks seventh in CUSA in digs per set both overall (3.76) and in CUSA play (3.80).
- In CUSA play, Laney Daniell ranks third in blocks per set (1.20). She has recorded five or more blocks in four out of the last seven matches, including a career-high seven blocks three times (at FIU, vs. Sam Houston, at Kennesaw State) during that span.
Team Notes
- Liberty has a chance to have its best conference record since joining CUSA. If the Lady Flames win both matches this weekend, they will be 9-7 in conference play, besting their league mark from the 2023 (8-8) and 2025 (8-8) seasons.
- With two wins this weekend, Liberty would be 9-3 at Liberty Arena, its most home wins since going 14-2 at Liberty Arena during the 2022 season.
- Liberty has the fourth best RPI of any CUSA team this season, at 92, trailing Western Kentucky (18), Missouri State (56) and Middle Tennessee (75). Delaware is ninth out of 10, at 259.
- After hitting .300 or better a combined five times in the 2023 and 2024 seasons, Liberty has already hit over .300 14 times under second-year Head Coach Jeremy White.
- Prior to last year, the last time Liberty came back from a 2-0 deficit to win a match was 2016. The Lady Flames have posted two reverse sweeps under second-year Head Coach Jeremy White, going 11-3 in five-set matches during his tenure.
- Last season, three Lady Flames (Carly O’Brien, Jenna Otts and Paige Overcash) recorded at least one double-digit kill match. This year, Liberty has already gotten at least one 10-kill match from six players (Layla Collins, Laney Daniell, Addison Hart, O’Brien, Otts and Overcash).
- After returning just 16.3 percent of its point production from 2024 to 2025, the Lady Flames brought back 86.8 percent of their point production from 2025 into this season.
