The Liberty field hockey team has accomplished a lot during the 2017 season, but head coach Mary Kate Omdah loves that the Hurricanes aren’t celebrating…Yet.

Liberty advanced to the East Penn Conference championship by defeating East Stroudsburg South in the quarterfinals and Easton in the semifinals. The Hurricanes (18-2) will face Emmaus (20-0) in the finals on Thursday, Oct. 19.

“We talked about how we’ve had some milestones and record-breaking things happen and we really haven’t celebrated that and made a big deal about it yet because our focus is on the team,” coach Omdah said.

“I’m proud of them for that and we’ll celebrate those things later.”

Against ES-South, senior Olivia Sahaydak got Liberty on the scoreboard first with a one-on-three breakaway against the Cavaliers defense. Sahaydak would add another tally off a corner with six minutes left to seal the victory.

After missing the majority of last season due to injury, the Duke commit is enjoying a fantastic senior season with over 60 goals and 13 assists. Sahaydak attributes Liberty’s success to a strong senior class that has seen a lot of ups and downs over four seasons.

“This is the core group that stayed all four years. We’ve gotten so close over the years and had so much fun playing together,” Sahaydak said.

Coach Omdah currently has six players slated to continue their playing careers at the next level. In addition to Sahaydak at Duke, senior Eleni Prodes will be playing at Penn State. Senior Lucy Kitch-Peck and juniors Sadie Abboud and McKenna Burkhardt have college offers, but have not announced their decisions yet.

The other college commit is sophomore Rayne Wright, who announced her intention to play for the University of Maryland at the end of September. Wright recorded 11 shots against ES-South, and with 15 minutes left in the second half, made a critical goal line stop to prevent the Cavaliers comeback attempt.

Regardless of Thursday’s result against Emmaus, Liberty is projected to be the No. 2 seed in next week’s District XI playoffs.