by Russell Vannozzi | Nov 19, 2018 | News Slider, Sports
ORLANDO, Fla. – If there’s a Cinderella story in the NCAA men’s soccer tournament, it’s been the Lipscomb Bisons. And after a 1-0 overtime upset of No. 9 Central Florida on Sunday, the shoe apparently fits well. Lipscomb’s Louis Robinson got a foot on low cross from Austin Eager in the 97th minute, and the freshman beat UCF keeper Yannik Oettl to give the Bisons a 1-0 victory. The win came just three days after Lipscomb stunned Washington with a 5-4 victory in penalty kicks. The Bisons then made the cross-country trip from Seattle to Orlando on Friday to prepare for their second-round match at UCF. Lipscomb goalie Chris Zappia had another career night and made eight saves for the second consecutive game. UCF fired 19 total shots to Lipscomb’s eight, but the Bison defense held on for extra time. Just before Robinson’s decisive tally, Logan Paynter and Noah Gulden each had shots on the UCF net. The ball was cleared away by UCF and corralled by Ryan Birchfield, who fed a pass to Eager to set up the game-winning strike. Survive. Advance. @LipscombMSOC is moving on after an OT winner!#NCAASoccer pic.twitter.com/DJJN66OknH — NCAA Soccer (@NCAASoccer) November 19, 2018 The Knights (13-2-3) controlled possession and appeared to have the Bisons on their heels for much of the first half. But after allowing 10 UCF shots in the first 45 minutes, the Bisons allowed just five in the second half. Robinson, a midfielder from Nottingham, England, emerged as a goal-scoring threat midway through the season. His four goals are tied for second most on the team behind Paynter’s nine tallies....
by Russell Vannozzi | Nov 16, 2018 | News Slider, Sports
WASHINGTON, D.C. – It’s been a season of firsts for the Lipscomb women’s soccer team. The Lady Bisons won their first ASUN regular season title, their first ASUN tournament championship and their first NCAA tournament game with a thrilling victory over Mississippi State last week. Unfortunately for the Lipscomb, that tournament magic ran out Friday against No. 4 seed Duke. The Blue Devils outplayed the Lady Bisons in every aspect of the match en route to a 3-0 victory at George Washington University. Lipscomb goalie Kate Mason was constantly peppered with Duke shots, and the senior made 10 saves. But Duke’s Tess Boade, Kayla McCoy and Gabi Brummett each found the back of the net by cracking Lipscomb’s back line of Justis Bailey, Logan McFadden and Hailey Eck. Lipscomb (15-5-2) junior Olivia Doak had a scoring opportunity in the closing seconds of the first half, but Duke keeper Brooke Heinsohn secured the ball before Doak could get a clear attempt on net. Kaitlin Echols eventually registered Lipscomb’s first official shot attempt in the 67th minute. Doak had Lipscomb’s best scoring chance in 84th minute, but Heinsohn made a juggling save to preserve the shutout. Duke outshot Lipscomb 26-4. The game was originally scheduled to be played at Georgetown’s Shaw Field. However, the D.C. area was hit with 1.5 inches of snow, sleet and freezing rain Thursday, forcing the match to be moved to George Washington University’s artificial turf field. With the victory, Duke (16-3-2) advanced to the Round of 16 of the Women’s College Cup. The Blue Devils will play the winner of Washington State-Georgetown on Sunday morning. Photo courtesy of Lipscomb...
by Russell Vannozzi | Nov 16, 2018 | News Slider, Sports
SEATTLE – Lipscomb goalie Luke Wilson sat on the bench for most of Thursday night’s first-round NCAA tournament game at Washington. His services simply weren’t needed as senior keeper Chris Zappia made eight saves to keep the game scoreless through regulation and two overtime periods. But Lipscomb coach Charles Morrow let Wilson, a known penalty-kick save specialist, loose with the game on the line, and the decision paid off. “Chris had such a good game… we asked Chris at the end of the game, it was his call,” Morrow told LipscombSports.com. “His words were, ‘Let Luke do what he does.’” Wilson stopped shots from Washington’s Corban Anderson and Charlie Ostrem while five of his Lipscomb teammates buried their attempts to give the Bisons a 5-4 shootout victory. “It’s hard and it takes a lot of confidence and belief in yourself,” Morrow said of stopping penalty kicks. “I couldn’t do it, but apparently Luke’s really good at it. I couldn’t be more proud of Luke’s performance.” Logan Paynter, Austin Eager, Louis Robinson, Ben Locke and John Wynia each converted penalty kicks to lift the Bisons to the upset. “It was an ugly game and definitely not the way we wanted it to play out, but our guys battled,” Morrow said. “I told the Pac-12 [Network] crew yesterday that one thing they might not know about this team is that we can play the beautiful game, but we can also win dirty. I think that is what it was tonight.” Washington (12-8) dominated possession for much of the contest and outshot Lipscomb 14-5. But between Zappia’s performance in net and Lipscomb’s aggressive play...
by Russell Vannozzi | Nov 15, 2018 | News Slider, Sports
Mississippi State assistant women’s soccer coach Josh Rife sent Lipscomb coach Kevin O’Brien a prescient text message after the Lady Bisons defeated North Alabama for the ASUN championship on Nov. 3. “Hope we don’t have to play you guys in the NCAA’s,” Rife wrote O’Brien. As luck would have it, Lipscomb and Mississippi State were paired as first-round opponents for the NCAA tournament last week. And Rife, who played with O’Brien on the USL’s Charlotte Eagles the early 2000s, was certainly on to something with his hunch about the strength of the Lady Bisons. “It was really ironic and funny,” O’Brien said of the message and the draw. “And obviously, it turned out to be great.” Lipscomb used an unlikely free kick from midfield to shock Mississippi State with 1-0 upset in the final minute of Golden Goal overtime last Friday. The victory advanced the Lady Bisons (15-4-2) to a second-round date with Duke on Friday morning in Washington, D.C. “The moment was kind of surreal,” O’Brien said. “We had kind of set our lineup for penalty kicks. You’re thinking with a minute on the clock [that] you’re definitely going into the penalty [kicks].” On the free kick, Lipscomb defender Dominique Diller sent a prayer into the box from midfield, hoping for a lucky bounce. The ball ricocheted off the head of Lipscomb Justis Bailey and to the foot of Kaitlin Echols, who quickly touched the ball into the back of the net, although Bailey was initially credited with the goal. “Kaitlin actually got a flick on it,” O’Brien said. “You can see if you watch the video back,...
by Russell Vannozzi | Nov 14, 2018 | News Slider, Sports
Losing seven games in a row typically doesn’t equate to a championship season, especially when a team’s schedule only includes 16 regular season games. However, that narrative exactly describes how the Lipscomb men’s soccer season played out. Despite a forgettable start, the Bisons are in Seattle to make their second-consecutive NCAA tournament appearance on Thursday night against Washington. “Looking back at the season… it was all fun,” Lipscomb coach Charles Morrow said at Monday’s NCAA selection show watch party. “That’s something we sort of preach in our program. This is a game and it’s meant to be fun, but there were some trying days in that stretch. For the guys to have the resiliency and perseverance that they did was really, really impressive.” The Bisons went 1-7 in their first eight games, including a seven-match skid that began in August and continued until late September. “It was a rough start,” Lipscomb senior forward Logan Paynter said. “[We had] a lot of new guys and knew it wasn’t going to be easy, so we just knew we had to keep learning and keep growing.” The tough beginning was somewhat expected after losing 10 seniors to graduation, including key cogs like forwards Ivan Alvarado and Ivan Sakou, midfielders Eduardo Reza and Kyle Smith, and defenders Cameron Botes and Joe Kerridge. But there were some silver linings during that losing streak. Five of the seven losses were by just one goal each, and two of the defeats came in overtime to No. 7 Kentucky and Jacksonville. “Coming out of last year and losing 10 guys, you know there’s going to be a...
