In what served as their home opener and the first Lipscomb Invitational, the Lady Bisons volleyball team won both matches against Tennessee Tech, bringing their winning streak at Allen Arena to twenty-nine.
“This is the first time we’ve hosted the tourney, and it’s fun,” said Coach Brandon Rosenthal. “I’m hoping that these couple wins, especially at home, will help tremendously.”
Earlier Friday, the Lady Bisons defeated Tennessee Tech in four sets. They easily won the first set 25-8, before losing the second set 19-25. They followed that up with two wins during their final matches, 27-25 and 25-10 respectively.
The Lady Bisons opened their season on the road in Houston, dropping all three matches but not without coming away with good insight to what they have as a team.
“I wanted to see if we had a fight in us, and we did,” Rosenthal said. “We’re a young team…and even though we took three losses, we fought hard.”
The Lady Bisons swept Charlotte in Friday’s evening match, but it didn’t come without a fight.
After winning the first two sets 25-19, the Lady Bisons had to work together as a team to fight off Charlotte’s rally in the third set.
When Charlotte came back to set the score at 21-20, Coach Rosenthal called a timeout to bring the team’s focus together.
“We wanted to get everybody on the same page and wanted to put a little pressure on them,” Coach Rosenthal recalled of the timeout.
The Lady Bisons won the third set 25-23 on a controversial call to take the match.
“In the end I don’t know if it was a good call or a bad call,” Rosenthal said, “but as coaches, we have to live with those.”
The Lady Bisons will finish the 2011 Lipscomb Invitational Saturday at Allen Arena, taking on Arkansas State at 2:30 p.m.