No. 1 Seed Liberty Eyes CUSA Championship After Regular Season Title
Top-seeded Liberty enters the 2026 Conference USA Women’s Soccer Championship in Newark, Delaware, facing No. 8 seed Sam Houston on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. ET, aiming to defend its conference title away from home.
The Lady Flames arrive at the tournament carrying a 13-game unbeaten streak and an unblemished 7-0-1 conference record. Wedemeyer’s squad wrapped up the regular season looking to replicate last year’s championship run, though this time the path requires three victories in six days in Newark, Del., rather than at Osborne Stadium.
Liberty’s defense set the tone during conference play by yielding only a single goal across eight matches. Goalkeeper Ainsley Leja anchors that backline, which has produced a Division I-leading 12 shutouts this season—tied with Auburn and Villanova—including eight from Leja, who carries a 0.45 goals-against average and an .841 save percentage.
Liberty Extends Unbeaten Run Against Conference Opponents
The team’s current stretch extends well beyond the 2026 conference slate. Liberty has not lost to a CUSA opponent in 23 consecutive matches, dating back to a regular-season defeat against FIU on Sept. 27, 2024. That run stands as the fifth-longest active streak among Division I programs.
The Lady Flames’ lone stumble this season occurred early in the autumn, a 2-0 loss at Pitt on Aug. 27. Since then, Liberty put together a 12-0-1 run to finish the regular season at 14-2-2 overall. At home in Lynchburg, the team closed out its schedule with a 15-game winning streak at Osborne Stadium, stretching back through last year’s CUSA championship games.
Offensively, Halle Engle paces the attack with seven goals and five game-winning tallies. Engle’s 13 career game-winning goals place her in the top 10 among active Division I players. Midfielder Avenly Monteith leads the team with four assists alongside three goals, while Margaret Garner, Izzie Smulik, and Isabella Wedemeyer have also contributed three goals apiece.
Delaware Hosts the Postseason Tournament Bracket
Tournament action begins Sunday, Nov. 8, with Delaware serving as host institution. Liberty earned the tournament’s top seed for the first time since joining CUSA in 2023, having claimed the No. 2 seed in each of its previous two championship appearances despite securing prior regular-season titles.
The tournament format requires the top-seeded Lady Flames to win three matches in six days to lift the trophy. The championship final is scheduled for noon ET on Friday, Nov. 14. All tournament matches are slated for live streaming on ESPN+, with tickets available via BlueHens.com.
Wedemeyer enters the postseason with a 278-175-65 career record, including a 117-52-26 mark since taking over the Liberty program in 2017. Under his guidance, the Lady Flames have recorded at least 10 wins in six consecutive seasons. The program’s best season under Wedemeyer remains the 2023 campaign, when Liberty finished 16-3-1 to capture its first CUSA tournament crown.