BELOIT — West Branch High School graduate and former Youngstown State women’s basketball standout Sophia Gregory is headed to Conference USA.

The reigning Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year who entered the transfer portal following her sophomore YSU season will join the Liberty University Flames.

Her father, Levi Gregory, posted on Facebook on Thursday that more than 50 schools reached out to Sophia but in the end he wrote that “She wanted a place to grow spiritually and experience new travels in her basketball adventures.”

Liberty University was established in 1971 by televangelist and pastor Jerry Falwell in Lynchburg, Virginia. It is one of the largest Christian universities in the world boasting a total enrollment of more than 140,000 students.

The Flames women’s basketball program was founded in 1975 and went to NCAA Div. I status in 1988. The Flames have 18 NCAA tournament appearances with the last one coming in 2025. From 1997 to 2006 Liberty made the NCAA tournament 10 straight times.

Last season, Liberty finished in the middle of the pack of Conference USA with an 18-13 overall mark and an 11-7 record in conference. The Flames were eliminated in the second round of the conference tournament by top seed Louisiana Tech.

The Liberty women’s basketball team primarily plays at the 4,000-seat Vines Center. Coach Alexis Sherard will be in his second season as Flames’ coach when play starts up in the fall. Sherard had spent 18 previous seasons as an assistant coach under Carey Green at Liberty.

Youngstown State coach Melissa Jackson reacted to Gregory’s departure, as well as the departure of junior guard Bella Samz and redshirt freshman Ashlynn Van Tassell, on Tuesday when discussing YSU’s plans for next season.

“I will say, definitely disappointed in Sophia’s decision,” Jackson said. “Then Bella and Ashlynn, I think those decisions are the right decisions for them and was fully supportive of those two.”

Gregory averaged 10.5 points and 8.7 rebounds per game in her final YSU season. She helped the Penguins with 25 games for the first time since 1997-98 in addition to advancing to the Horizon League championship game for the first time in school history.