by Mckenzi Harris | Mar 1, 2020 | News Slider, Sports
The Lady Bisons started with a lead but lost it to Liberty right before halftime eventually costing them the game 70 to 79 on senior day. “We were expecting to compete,” said head coach Lauren Sumski. “We were expecting to play a little bit smarter in the sense of taking care of the ball, but everything else was about what we expected. I thought our young ladies shot the ball well and played hard.” Even trailing late in the fourth quarter, the Lady Bisons fought until the end. Casey Collier fouled out with 1:04 left in the 4th quarter. And the team was fouling back and forth from 1:04 to the end. “At the end, were just a team that doesn’t quit and just tries to find opportunities,” said Sumski. The Bisons scored at least 20 in the first, third, and fourth quarters, but only seven in the second quarter. The Liberty Flames gained their lead in the middle of the second quarter and the Bisons didn’t gain their lead back after that. Carleigh Short was injured during the game and walked off the court. “I just know she got hurt and walked off the court,” said Sumski. “Carleigh is probably my physically and mentally toughest player so I knew when she walked off the court, she was done. So I’m gonna see what we can do to get her back by this weekend.” The Lady Bisons finished the regular season with a record of 7-22 (4-12) including this loss and Liberty improves to 17-11 (10-5). The Lady Bisons will play FGCU in the first round of the ASUN...
by Grant Ledgister | Mar 1, 2020 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb Bisons upset the Liberty Flames 77-71 Saturday afternoon in Allen Arena — in a day that honored the team’s seniors. The win locks the Bisons into the third seed in the ASUN Championship Tournament, earning a home game. “We’ve really had an unselfish bunch all year,” Lipscomb coach Lennie Acuff said. “Now we’re finally seeing some fruit.” Lipscomb, despite starting the season 3-6, finishes the season at 14-15 (9-7 ASUN). “We were really dead in the water about three weeks ago,” Acuff said. “Our guys really stepped up and kept going and doing the right thing. They’re high character kids.” Against Liberty, it was all Lipscomb. The Bisons jumped out to a 21-3 lead with just seven and a half minutes played in the first half. Two minutes later, the lead was up to 29-6. Three-pointers were especially important to the Bisons in the first half. Lipscomb made 10 of the 11 free throws attempted in the first 20 minutes. “Our guys really played well,” Acuff said. “You’re just not going to hit 10 of 11 very often, but I was proud of our guys.” The Flames were able to drop the Bisons lead down to five points on several occasions in the second half, including one final attempt to steal the game that dropped the lead to 76-71 with just over a minute to play in regulation. Each time, Lipscomb was able to put a run of scoring together to keep the game out of Liberty’s reach. The Bisons had four players in double figures, including senior Andrew Fleming (20 points) and center Ahsan Asadullah (18)....
by Tyler Harvey | Feb 28, 2020 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb Lady Bisons ended last season as ASUN champions and made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014 and for only the third time in Lipscomb Softball program history. After losing many graduating seniors, this year’s team is much younger than last year, but still has multiple key players returning. Younger team than last year The Lady Bisons played with seven seniors during the team’s 2019 campaign. During the 2020 campaign, Lipscomb will only have four seniors on the roster. “We just graduated a lot of power kids; a lot of power hitters through the middle of the order, plus our leadoff and our nine hitter who were speedsters, and a lot of veterans in the outfield,” Lipscomb softball coach Kristin Ryman said. Coach Ryman’s strategy is not to try and replace the kind of skills that the graduated players on last year’s team possessed; instead her strategy is to build up the skills that the incoming and returning players have. “We don’t have to replace what all of those other girls did, all the homeruns they hit,” Coach Ryman said. “It’s how do we play to the strengths of this new crop of kids we have.” Amy Vetula’s hot start While Lipscomb lost many players that led to the team’s success in 2019, the Lady Bisons are still returning multiple key players. The 2019 ASUN Player and Defensive Player of the year Hannah DeVault will be returning for her senior season, along with sophomores Katie Turner and Amy Vetula, who both earned spots on the ASUN All-Freshman Team last year. “Amy Vetula kind of started...
by Grant Bricker | Feb 24, 2020 | News Slider, Sports
Lipscomb’s win streak finally came to an end at the hands of Samford at Dugan Field Sunday afternoon. The Bisons held on for as long as they could, but lost 7-3 when it was all said and done. Despite this being the Bison’s first loss of the year, they still won the three preliminary games in the Turface Classic. Lipscomb 4, Evansville 1 The first game of the Turface Classic started off very slow thanks to great pitching from both teams. Evansville got on the board first with a solo home run to center on what would be Lipscomb freshman pitcher Logan Van Treeck’s only run given to the Aces in his six innings of play. Senior infielder Haddon Adams evened the score in the fifth after Adams’s RBI single brought senior catcher Jarrett O’Leary home. In the seventh inning, Van Treeck was relieved by junior right hander Wyatt Folsom who pitched two scoreless innings to preserve the Bisons’ lead. Folsom was aided by a home run by junior infielder Chris Bashlor to bring the final score to 4-1. Lipscomb 10, Bradley 7 Next up was a winless Bradley squad that gave the Bisons a very good game. Lipscomb’s bats were hot early as they outscored Bradley 9-3 throughout the first five innings. But, Bradley had very productive fifth and sixth innings. The Braves scored on a double that was followed up by three-run homer to make it a 9-6 ballgame. After getting outplayed in the fifth and sixth innings, the Bisons only managed to score on an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth to hold on...
by Grant Ledgister | Feb 19, 2020 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb Lady Bisons survived a second-half comeback from the NJIT Highlanders 68-66 Monday night in Allen Arena. The win snaps a six-game losing streak and keeps the Lady Bisons in the driver’s seat for the eighth and final spot in the ASUN Championship Tournament. “We knew that today’s game was going to be a battle for the conference tournament,” Lipscomb head coach Lauren Sumski said. “We knew they were going to do some things they hadn’t done all year; they had to step up and make shots they hadn’t made all year.” It was a sluggish first quarter for both teams. Neither team shot particularly well, with Lipscomb only taking a 12-8 lead because of three-pointers from senior guard Carleigh Short and junior forward Taylor Clark. Lipscomb took a 34-17 lead into halftime off the back of a 14-4 run in the second quarter. “That’s been the consistent theme for us,” Sumski said. “We’ve been putting together pretty good second quarters when we settle into the game. If we don’t have that second quarter, we don’t have the result we had tonight” Despite widening the lead to 40-17 with nine minutes to play in the third quarter, Lipscomb would only make four more field goals the rest of the quarter and none in the final three minutes. This allowed NJIT to drop the lead to 51-42 with only 70 seconds played into the final quarter. “We just have to do better out of halftime defending and keeping a sense of urgency,” Sumski said. “It’s about being tough and withstanding those runs.” A scoreless run by Lipscomb late in...
by Grant Bricker | Feb 19, 2020 | News Slider, Sports
Lipscomb started off the season with statement wins against the Falcons of Bowling Green State University. While the last two games didn’t match the offensive firepower of the first, overall it was a great weekend for Lipscomb Baseball. “Anytime you sweep anybody in college baseball it’s good because wins don’t come easy. I think they [the team] had the right mindset and were able to finish it up and get the sweep,” said Bisons head Coach Jeff Forehand. Lipscomb 15, Bowling Green 10 Lipscomb was an RBI machine on opening day with all 15 of its runs coming from RBIs. The first few innings were very back and forth until the Bison held the Falcons scoreless during innings 7,8, and 9 to close out the game. Every single player in the Bison lineup recorded a hit. Sophomore catcher Chaz Bertolani, junior centerfielder Maddux Houghton, and senior shortstop Brian Moore combined for 12 of the team’s 15 RBIs. Bowling Green had three balks that turned the game in Lipscomb’s favor as well. Lipscomb 5, Bowling Green 2 Game two of the series was more of a defensive battle for Lipscomb. Lipscomb took control of this game early, only allowing runs in the 2nd and 9th innings. Junior right hander Max Habegger started for the Bisons and played four innings while retiring five batters for Bowling Green. Another solid pitching performance came from Freshman closer Gavin Grubbs, who ended the game allowing no runs and only one hit. Lipscomb 5, Bowling Green 2 The final game of the series was very similar to Game 2 not only because it was the...
