by George Wong | Aug 27, 2015 | News Slider, Sports
Lipscomb’s volleyball team will begin the quest to improve on last year’s successful season at the season-opening Utah Classic in Salt Lake City this weekend. And the challenge to improve on last season is not an easy one, since the Lady Bisons won the Atlantic Sun Conference and recorded 21 wins and 9 losses, finishing ranked No. 39 at NCAAs a year ago. Having that second best rank in the Lipscomb volleyball program history places a lot of expectations and added pressure to do even better this year, according to some of the freshmen. “There is definitely pressure, the women’s volleyball team has always had a pretty good past, so coming into the season you just have that automatic expectation from the coaches and teammates,” freshman Carlyle Nusbaum said. The Lady Bisons have added six freshmen this year. Carli Anderson, Calayci Coffey, Hannah Hutcheson, Lauren Anderson, Marcella Emmanuelli and Nusbaum were recruited by head coach Brandon Rosenthal, who said all the new players performed at a high level in club and high school volleyball. “They are all very explosive, which suits our game style and program,” Rosenthal said. “They are still very young, so the experience level needs to improve, which will come from playing a lot of matches.” The new players said that in addition to experience, they believe team bonding is essential to success. “We do a lot of team building activities, trying to build close relationships with each other, because that makes such a difference when we play together,” Hutcheson said. “We have worked really hard as a team up until this point just to be competitive with all the different schools...
by Erin Turner | Jun 11, 2015 | News Slider, Sports
NCAA’s Academic Progress Rates are assessed each term to assure there is no low academic performance for all NCAA athletes under scholarship. If any team scores below a 925, a scholarship loss can occur. Any scores below 900 can warrant other penalties. Lipscomb athletics passed the reports again, and were Atlantic Sun Conference Academic Champions for the second straight year. 85.9 percent of Lipscomb student-athletes had a 3.0 grade point average or higher during 2014-15 school year. Northern Kentucky finished with 69.5 percent of their student-athletes earning conference scholar honors just ahead of Florida Gulf Coast, who finished with 67.5 percent. Below is a chart of the APR scores from all Lipscomb teams. Visit the NCAA APR’s website for a complete history of Lipscomb’s APRs, as well as other NCAA team reports. TEAM 2013-2014 Baseball 961 Men’s Basketball 933 Men’s Cross Country 990 Men’s Golf 986 Men’s Soccer 967 Men’s Tennis 992 Men’s Indoor Track 971 Men’s Outdoor Track 980 Softball 996 Women’s Basketball 969 Women’s Cross Country 995 Women’s Golf 992 Women’s Soccer 973 Women’s Tennis 981 Women’s Indoor Track 992 Women’s Outdoor Track 992 Women’s Volleyball...
by Charlie Bateman | May 31, 2015 | News Slider, Sports
Lipscomb baseball watched its season come to a close after losing to No. 18 Radford 5-2 in a NCAA Regional elimination game on Saturday afternoon at Hawkins Field. Radford scored runs in the third, fifth and sixth innings. The largest number of runs came in the sixth inning, in which Radford scored three from an error, sacrifice fly and home run. During the middle of the sixth inning, the game was delayed by rain for over an hour — something the Bisons have seen a lot of this year. “We have been through so many weather delays this year, that the stoppage in play did not bother us,” senior Grant Massey said. “We actually felt at the time that it was an advantage to forget about what happened in the top of the sixth.” Teammates echoed Massey, saying the delay would help them get in the right mindset to come up with a big rally in the later innings. But Lipscomb still had trouble getting to Radford’s relievers. “I have to give credit to all their pitchers including their reliever and closer,” Lipscomb head coach Jeff Forehand said. “They had pitchers that were very precise and made the big plays when they needed to.” The only runs for Lipscomb came from a two-run homer from senior Josh Lee. This was the only home run Lee had on the entire season. Lee, who played for Vanderbilt as a freshman before transferring to Central Arizona Community College, said it was odd to hit his only home run of the season at the field where his collegiate career began. “[It was] definitely a full-circle experience...
by Charlie Bateman | May 30, 2015 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb baseball team fell to Vanderbilt 9-1 at the NCAA regional game at Hawkins Field Friday night. Vanderbilt spread out its scoring in the second, fifth, sixth and seventh innings. The Commodores started the scoring with two runs in the second inning on a two-run homer by left fielder Jeren Kendall. Vanderbilt’s big inning came in the sixth when it scored a total of five runs on three singles and a double. “We held with Vanderbilt the first few innings,” Lipscomb coach Jeff Forehand said. “We just gave them too many freebies.” The only run for the Bisons came from junior redshirt Adam Lee. “I saw that [Vandy starter Carson Fulmer] threw a slider on a three-two pitch,” Lee said. “I put a good swing on it, which led to a base hit.” Lee’s RBI was Fulmer’s first run surrendered in 27 and 2/3 innings at home. The last one was on March 14 against Arkansas. Fulmer, who is considered to be a first-round draft pick by many experts, pitched seven innings and had 11 strike outs. “We knew what he [Fulmer] was going to bring,” Forehand said. “He was using the breaking ball effectively and threw it short, which really messed with our batters. “It is hard to prepare for a guy that throws a 95-mile-an-hour fastball and the next pitch is a 79-mile-an-hour breaking ball at your waist.” Forehand said he hopes the bats for Lipscomb will ignite its offense Saturday. Lipscomb will take on Radford on Saturday at 3 p.m. in the losers’ bracket. Photo courtesy of Lipscomb...
by Charlie Bateman | May 25, 2015 | News Slider, Sports
When Lipscomb’s baseball team takes on Vanderbilt in the NCAA regionals Friday evening, coach Jeff Forehand will be just beginning his dream “business trip.” The trip to Vandy’s Hawkins Field, just off West End, isn’t the final destination of that dream. He’s not looking past Vanderbilt, but he has goals of getting much farther west, to Omaha — home of the College World Series. That’s where the Commodores were crowned national champions last year, and he knows Vanderbilt is looking for a repeat. “Every year we work for the same goal,” said Forehand, after his team won the Atlantic Sun tournament over the weekend and earned the school’s second NCAA tourney bid. “We want to end up playing in Omaha.” Of course, you’ve got to start somewhere, so Forehand said he believes the game at Vandy is just the first step of many to accomplish the goal of making it to the World Series. The Bisons baseball team defeated North Florida 8-7 in the Atlantic Sun baseball tournament championship game. Others in the Nashville region bracket include Vanderbilt, Indiana, and Radford. Vanderbilt will be the host team for this division. “This is somethng we have been working towards all season long, to see our name called on the screen for postseason play,” Forehand told Lipscomb athletics department reporter Kirk Downs, after his team watched the selection show on Monday. “It has been such a big day for our team to be able to see that together. “Vanderbilt is such a great team and it will be a unique experience kicking off the tournament on their home field right here...
by Charlie Bateman | May 20, 2015 | News Slider, Sports
Lipscomb’s Dawson Armstrong missed nationals by just one stroke at the NCAA men’s golf Chapel Hill regional at the UNC Finley Course. But Armstrong ended with one of the best scores, shooting a seven-below-par 65, tied for second place. Armstrong said he can build off this success into next year. “The idea is that I am going to have a lot of experience,” Armstrong said. “What has happened in the last few months will help me realize what can happen in the future.” Dawson came into the tournament as the only mid-major golfer to finish in the top five. He said being in this position motivated him to finish strong in the NCAA regionals with the best college golfers. “It was neat to compete against some of the best players in the country,” Armstrong said. “I did not feel I had my best game, but it was encouraging to lose to only one person.” According to final rankings for college golf, Armstrong was considered to be the eighth-best freshman. Armstrong said he was impressed with this rating because of the level of competition he has faced while playing golf at a mid-major school. “At a mid-major school that is huge, because I was not playing in the same tournaments they are,” Armstrong said. “It is also the assurance of all the hard work I have put into the game of golf.” Armstrong said he believes he is not far from beating the best players college golf has to offer and is looking to use what he learned from the NCAA regionals as a way to build confidence going into next...
