🆚 Liberty University
📆 Wednesday, November 12, 2025
⏰ 7 pm CT
🏟️ Hunter Stadium – St. Charles, Missouri
📈 LIVE STATS
📺 ESPN+
⚽️OHIO VALLEY CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
🏆OVC TOURNAMENT BRACKET
Houston Christian University takes on Liberty University on Wednesday night in the semifinals of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. The Huskies and Flames will meet for the third time this season when they hook up at Hunter Stadium at Lindenwood University with kick-off set for 7 pm.
The Huskies have not played since a 5-1 "Senior Day" rout of University of Southern Indiana. The win, coupled with rival UIW's 1-0 win over Liberty, pushed HCU to the top of their four-team pod to earn the second-seed in the tournament and the bye to the semifinals that came with it for the second straight year. Host Lindenwood was the regular season champion and earned the top seed in their first year of hosting the tournament following two straight years at SIUE.
HCU put a season-high five goals on the board in the finale.
D'Alessandro Herrera opened the scoring for the Huskies in the 19
th minute with a goal in his final time on the home pitch. Just after the half,
Jireh Oyebamiji got into the act, as he collected his first career brace in his last outing on Fondren Road, scoring in the 54th and 65th minutes on the first two career assists from
Nana Obeng.
Ryan Okerayi and
Joby Reid added goals for the Huskies to finish off a 19-shot offensive attack.
Alex Aitken made two saves to collect his 26th career victory.
HCU is now 10-5-2 overall and finished 5-3-2 in the OVC in Head Coach
Ryan Pratt's ninth season at the helm and 12th season overall with the program. The Huskies have now finished second in the league two straight years and the 10 wins on the season is the most in a single-season since 2008. HCU lost to SIUE 3-2 in double-overtime in last year's OVC Championship match.
The winners of each pod earned first-round byes straight to the semifinals of the six-team conference tournament field. Two-time defending champion and fourth-seeded SIUE advanced to face top-seed Lindenwood with a 2-0 win over Western Illinois, while Liberty defeated Eastern Illinois 1-0 to move on to face HCU.
The Huskies had seven players honored by the
OVC last Friday as the league handed out its postseason accolades.
Houston native and senior
D'Alessandro Herrera was named 2025 Midfielder of the Year for the second time in his career and was selected to the All-OVC first team, earning all-conference honors for the third straight campaign.
Alex Aikten, a senior from Great Barford, England, was selected as the 2025 Goalkeeper of the Year as well as picking up first team honors, the second time he has been selected All-OVC. Aitken is the first keeper in school history to be named Goalkeeper of the Year.
Ryan Okerayi, a junior forward from Houston, picked up First Team All-OVC honors for the third straight season. He was Freshman of the Year following 2023 season. He was joined on the first team by defender
Nico Kross, a junior from Heidenheim, Germany.
Ricardo Garcia, a junior midfielder from Houston, was named to the second team, his first career postseason honors.
Joby Reid was named 2025 Freshman of the Year. The forward from Tauranga, New Zealand was joined on the All-Newcomer team by freshman midfielder
Ben Thirkill of Bingley, England.
Ryan Okerayi leads the club with 18 points and a career-high eight goals, the most by a Husky in a single-season since 2022. He is now one of just seven players in school history with 20 goals or more and he is tied for first in the league in goals and tied for second in points.
D'Alessandro Herrera and
Joby Reid are tied for second on the squad with five goals apiece. Reid paces the Huskies with six assists, tied for third in the OVC. Herrera is just behind Okerayi with 17 career goals and his 19 assists have moved him into a tie with George Sangira for fourth place all-time.
Alex Aitken has eight clean sheets which leads the OVC and ties his personal single-season high set last year. He is first in the league in GAA (0.77) and save percentage (.843) while ranking 4th in saves (70) and saves per (4.12).
He has placed himself at the top of several goalkeeping lists, as he sits first all-time in saves at HCU with 299 over four seasons, one of just three keepers with over 200 saves in school history. He is first in career shutouts with 20 and now has 26 wins total, the most victories since the restart of the program in 2006.
The brace by
Jireh Oyebamiji in the season finale gave HCU its 10th different goal-scorer, the fourth straight season with double-figure scorers.
HCU faces Liberty for the third time in the 2025 campaign. The two schools met the day before Halloween in the penultimate match of the regular season, playing to a hard-fought 0-0 draw in Houston. In the earlier meeting of the season, HCU picked up its first win in the all-time series with a 1-0 victory in Lynchburg, Virginia on October 5.
Nico Kross provided the game-winner just under four minutes into the second half, and
Alex Aitken posted a career-high 12 saves.
The two schools have now met six times with all coming since the two joined the OVC with HCU trailing the Flames 1-2-3 in the series.
Liberty is led by veteran head coach Kelly Findlay, who is now in his seventh and final campaign at the helm of Liberty after announcing his retirement at the beginning of the October. Findley has been a head coach since 1999, with stints at Mars Hill, Butler and North Carolina State prior to his time in Lynchburg.
Liberty is now 9-4-6 overall following its 1-0 win over EIU, the first-ever win in the conference tournament for the Flames. LU finished the regular season with a 4-2-4 mark in conference action, its best OVC mark in program history, finishing one point behind HCU in the four-team pod.
Zach Lifferth paces an offense that is 19th nationally in goals scored having outscored its opponents 37-23 on the season. The senior forward is tied for the league lead in goals with eight. Junior forward Leo Conneh is second on the club and tied for fifth in the league with six goals while junior defender Perry Blay is second in the OVC with seven assists. Tyler Beck has played every minute in the pipes for the Flames, making 56 saves, six shutouts and a 1.21 GAA on the year.
The winners of the two semifinals will meet on Saturday, November 15 for the OVC Championship. Kick-off is scheduled for 7:30 pm.
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