by Erika Plunkett | Feb 3, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
Injuries continued to plague the Lipscomb women’s basketball team in an 81-60 loss to the second-best team in the ASUN as part of a doubleheader against North Alabama. Sophomore guard Taylor Clark, who currently leads the team in scoring, was ruled out Friday with an undisclosed injury. On the flipside, junior guard Lauren Rau returned to the starting lineup after sitting out on Tuesday. Lipscomb coach Greg Brown said her “intensity” made an immediate impact in a strong first half for the Lady Bisons. The Lions’ (16-2, 7-1 ASUN) sophomore forward Brittany Panetti came into Saturday’s matchup boasting the highest points-per-game mark in the conference, but two early fouls put her on the bench and gave the Lady Bisons (2-19, 0-8 ASUN) early success. Despite UNA junior guard Emma Wallen’s 17 first-quarter points, including five three-pointers, Lipscomb was down by only six at the end of the first quarter. Entering the second quarter, the Lady Bisons went on a 10-1 run led by freshman guard Keely Morrow, who would finish as the Lady Bisons’ leading scorer with 11 points. Part of the second quarter success was fueled by Lipscomb’s points off turnovers, generating its first lead going into halftime since December. But coming back from halftime, the Lions finally got into rhythm, led by Panetti’s return to the game. The second quarter script was flipped, and it was the Lions who went on a scoring run. Wallen also made an impact after scoring zero points in the second quarter with her three-point shooting. She finished the day with a career-high 30 points and was 8-of-13 from behind the arc....
by Charissa Ricker | Feb 2, 2019 | Arts and Entertainment, News Slider
Spring Awakening is the latest show to fit the pattern of Second Stage Student Theatre’s past productions as it brings light to uncomfortable topics that are often not openly discussed. Spring Awakening is a controversial rock musical that delves into topics such as sexuality in adolescents, suicide, religion and more. The play opened last night at Community Bible Church and will have two more performances — February 2 at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Second Stage Student Theatre is a group from the Nashville area that creates an avenue for theater students to perform, mainly coming from Lipscomb and Belmont. This student-led company’s mission is being “…dedicated to empowering young theatre artists and crafting the next generation of socially and culturally challenging works of theatre by creating avenues to explore theatrical production, direction and design.” The company is an outlet for several Lipscomb students to perform, including junior Olivia Zemer, who was in the ensemble of Spring Awakening. “It’s such an important story,” Zemer said. “I’m an education major, so I think about all the kids that I’ll be working with in the future and how they are going through all these same things that the students in the show are, but nobody is talking to them, and that is still happening today.” Lipscomb senior Liz Schenck went to the Friday night performance and said she felt the show was relevant to today’s society. “I thought is was absolutely phenomenal,” Schenck said. “This is the kind of story that isn’t told often enough, especially in the kind of culture we’re living in, deeply entrenched in the Bible Belt.” Not only was the...
by Carly Reams | Feb 2, 2019 | Arts and Entertainment, News Slider, Student Spotlight
Thomas Rhett and Kelsea Ballerini both came from Lipscomb in recent years, and Lipscomb student Peytan Porter is making plans to follow in their footsteps. Porter started her singing career at the age of 12, but she said it wasn’t actually something she wanted to do at the time. She only wrote songs about how her mom was mean for giving her chores. “I didn’t take it seriously until at a church camp, and my mom was having to sing and act at the same time,” Porter recalled. “She was terrible. Then she was like, ‘Well then you do it,’ and I said ‘Noo!’ They ended up giving me a microphone behind the curtain. So I sang, behind the stage, and our music director came back and was like, ‘You’re a singer; you are doing this.’” Ever since then, Porter has been focusing on her songwriting, including her job as a full-time staff writer at Sea Gayle Music and doing a songwriting internship. She said she has always dreamed of becoming apart of the Nashville music scene, and even called it her “Disney World vacation” when she was able to visit at fourteen. “I would not be at Lipscomb if it was not in Nashville,” Porter said. “I chose to come here when I was young. My mom was like. ‘You can go on a cruise to Cozumel, or you can go to Nashville.’ My sister went on the cruise, and I came to Nashville.” Porter said she chose Lipscomb over Belmont’s music program because she liked how Lipscomb’s program felt like a small, Christian community. She is no longer...
by Adrienne Luu | Feb 2, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
The match took four and a half hours to finish, but the Lipscomb men’s tennis team left with a 4-3 victory over Furman University on Friday night. The Bisons (2-2) started the night off against the Paladins with a lead by winning the doubles point. On the third line, Lipscomb’s Francesco Tacconi and George Wong played Furman’s Ivan Mitric and James Roelfose and lost the match 6-1. Bisons pair Jorge Ortegon and Pedro Uribe then won their set 6-3 against Drew Singerman and Clarke Wilson, leaving it up to Lipscomb’s duo in line one to get the doubles point. As Lipscomb’s Victor Chaw and Pablo Caffarena fought out their battle with Jake Munns and Jake Bhangdia, the two teams stood watch while waiting to see who would clinch the point. After a long battle, Chaw and Caffarena managed to win the set 6-4 and got Lipscomb’s first point of the night, putting them in the lead. “I think the doubles was more of an example of being greedy rather than us playing well,” Lipscomb coach Geoff Hernandez said. “It wasn’t our best, but we performed mentally, and that’s the thing we talked about all week. Even though it wasn’t our best, they still pulled out the win.” The win from the doubles point gave the Bisons more energy and motivation to transfer their heat to singles play and try to win the night’s match with just three more points. In the No. 2 spot, Caffarena was the first to finish the job, bringing the Bisons up 2-0. Playing against the Paladins’ Clarke Wilson, Caffarena won both of his sets...
by Russell Vannozzi | Feb 2, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
Mid-major teams generally have one option for making the Big Dance: winning a conference tournament title. On rare occasions, a few mid-major squads piece together such solid resumes that the Selection Committee cannot ignore them. Gonzaga (19-2), Nevada (19-1) and Buffalo (18-2) appear to fit that mold this season. But what about Lipscomb? The Bisons have caught the eyes of the college basketball world with victories over TCU, SMU, Vermont and Liberty, along with close losses to Louisville and Belmont (x2). Do they stand any chance to get an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament? The answer: probably not. However, it isn’t completely out of the question. Lipscomb touts an impressive 17-4 overall record, and the Bisons are a perfect 8-0 in ASUN play. They’re also 2-3 against Quadrant 1 opponents and 2-1 against Quadrant 2 opponents. Heading into Saturday’s contest against North Alabama, Lipscomb sits at No. 36 in the NET rankings and the KenPom ratings. The Bisons can hang their hat on a marquee victory at TCU on Nov. 20. But the biggest factor working in Lipscomb’s favor is that it does not have any bad losses. The ASUN’s first-place team is 11-0 against Quadrant 3 and 4 opponents, and their worst loss came at home to Belmont (a top-70 team) on Nov. 15. All that to say, Lipscomb is best off taking care of business and winning its conference tournament on March 10. However, they might be able to survive a hiccup in the ASUN tournament if they do the following: 1. Win their final eight regular season games The Bisons are going to be favored in...
by Tyler Harvey | Feb 1, 2019 | News Slider
A new $250 million campaign and 200,000 student-pledged service hours were just a couple of the big announcements in chapel this morning. Chapel was a little different today; students were greeted by free T-shirts that said Lipscomb Leads and live instrumental music performed by student band Daves Highway and friends. The money from this new campaign will go towards academic programs, campus development and student scholarships. The donors have already given $186 million of the $250 million goal of the campaign. “We’re going to make it,” Lipscomb President Randy Lowry said. Lipscomb said in a statement that the Lipscomb Leads campaign will focus on three main priorities: “A best in class academic program, a transformative student experience and a model for sustainable impact.” President Lowry described the goals of the program by emphasizing the program’s goal to enrich student scholarships, academic programs and campus development. “We want every single classroom to be the opportunity and environment for 21st century learning,” Lowry said. “…Scholarships are important to students who have no other opportunity of getting an education. These scholarships will open up their world and give opportunities that they never imagined.” Along with student scholarships and academic programs, Lipscomb Leads will also go towards renovating the campus. “About $50 million of this campaign will go towards the next phase of campaign development,” Lowry said. The renovations announced include Allen Arena, Elam Hall and the McFarland Science Center. The campaign will take approximately three years to finish. “I look forward to getting together in three years to celebrate the campaign’s completion,” Lowry said. Additionally, the Lipscomb graduate school of business will be getting a new...
