by Russell Vannozzi | Oct 11, 2018 | News Slider, Sports
Alyssa Zwolensky was scrolling through Instagram to try to get some insight on her future Lipscomb volleyball teammates. She was, after all, about to make the 700-mile trip to Nashville from her home in Rockledge, Florida, to enroll at Lipscomb a semester early, which understandably caused some nerves. Then she came across the page of Megan Sullivan, who was set to transfer to Lipscomb from Houston for the Spring 2017 semester. Sullivan played sparingly for the Cougars in 2016 and wanted a chance to restart her college volleyball career in a new city. Zwolesnky eventually noticed a picture of Sullivan with her dad, who was sporting a scar on his head. After Zwolesnky did more digging and exchanged a few texts with Sullivan, things took a dark turn. “Also, what type of brain cancer does your Dad have?” Alyssa texted Megan. “I was like, “I don’t know, it’s some long name that starts with a ‘G’,’” said Sullivan, who checked with her stepmother to confirm the scientific name of her father’s disease, which was glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer that affects the brain or spine and currently has no cure. Zwolesnky was stunned. Her father, James, had passed away from the very same type of cancer in April 2016, just five months after his initial diagnosis. “We were just like ‘wow,’” Sullivan said. The connection formed an instant bond between the two girls. Finally, they each had someone who understood the pain glioblastoma can cause a family. “It’s an unreal story,” said Lipscomb volleyball coach Brandon Rosenthal. “For Alyssa to have somebody like Megan, and Megan to have somebody like Alyssa…no...
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 Logan Butts | Dec 2, 2014 | News Slider
By Brianne Welch and Logan Butts Potential rain may have moved Lighting of the Green’s tenth anniversary into Allen Arena, but the night only brought a downpour of festive cheer and a surprise fit for the season. Grant returned to be the evening’s emcee. The lineup consisted of Danny Gokey, Jon Guerra, The Willis Clan, Brother Parker and surprise guest Vince Gill. Outside of the night’s entertainment, Lipscomb University shared that a new scholarship will be created in Grant’s honor. Lipscomb’s presidential spouse Rhonda Lowry was on hand to announce a gift of $50,000 to start the scholarship. During the show, a painting was created and will be auctioned off. The proceeds will go to the scholarship fund. During the show, the Lipscomb Academy and Lipscomb University choruses also performed Christmas songs. Grant performed a number of her Christmas-themed hits throughout the night, including “Emmanuel” and “Tennessee Christmas.” “I’ve always grown up listening to Amy Grant Christmas [music], so it’s kind of a nostalgic thing for me to come and listen to her sing,” attendee Mallory Grady said. Vendors run by local businesses were set up in the arena for anyone in attendance to visit before the show began. Santa and Mrs. Claus were made available for pictures inside of the Hall of Fame room and free hot chocolate and cookies were offered to guests as they arrived to the show. “I just like the whole setup of everything with the booths,” sophomore Kasey Gibson said. “It’s very Christmasy, so I like that.” The night of holiday festivities concluded with the tradition of lighting of Lipscomb’s Christmas tree in the Allen...
by Joe Sanderson | Nov 19, 2014 | News Slider, Sports
With a 3-0 sweep of USC Upstate and 3-1 victory over Kennesaw State University last weekend, the lady Bisons clinched the regular season championship and with it secured the No. 1 seed heading into the Atlantic Sun Tournament. Head coach Brandon Rosenthal knew that something was different with the team this year with heir attitude towards the game and outlook on winning. “Going to Kansas and beating Kansas, going to Missouri and beating Missouri and Illinois State,” Rosenthal said, “It was just one of those years where everybody believed and it was special.” Injuries and illness plagued the team towards the start of the season, but they found a way to fight back and end conference play 13-1. Rosenthal said that it’s not necessarily about the talent but the character. Over a quarter of the team are seniors this year and their leadership was apparent in each and every game they played during the regular season. “We talked at the beginning of the year about leaving a legacy, and that has nothing to do with wins and losses, it has everything to do with who you are,” said Rosenthal. “These girls, led by our seniors have done that.” Rosenthal mentioned when you have a season like theirs you expect to win every match you go into and there’s definitely an expectation of going into the tournament and winning. “I don’t think there’s any surprise for us or for anyone else that we want to do this,” said Rosenthal. “We aren’t going to win every set 25-0, we know they’re going to push us.” The Lady Bisons went 20-7 overall...
by Joe Sanderson | Sep 27, 2014 | Sports
The Lipscomb Lady Bisons turned a rough start into a victory in the first Atlantic Sun match of the season. This was the Lady Bisons fourth straight time matching up against Northern Kentucky University for the A-Sun season opener. Lipscomb started out rough giving up eight errors in the first set, eventually dropping the set 25-21 to the Norse. The Lady Bisons took the win with three consecutive set wins by scores of 29-26, 31-29 and 25-20. “There’s no doubt we have a ton of respect for Northern Kentucky and every time we play them we know it’s going to be a battle,” Lipscomb coach Brandon Rosenthal said. “They really make you make the errors. Conference is on the line and nobody is looking to start out 0-1.” Out of five season openers against Northern Kentucky, this is the first time the two teams played it in Allen Arena. The spectators were buzzing with both excitement and anxiety as each set stayed close until the end. Outside hitter senior Lauren Ford led the Lady Bisons in the game with a match-high 23 kills, just two short of her career high. Coming off of a three game slide, she admitted that they needed a win. Another standout performance for the Lady Bisons came from junior Molly Spitznagle. She was credited with 19 kills, a career high for her, and added five blocks to round off her night defensively. “Setting Molly as much as we did was a deliberate move,” Rosenthal said. “With the scouting report we felt we had an advantage with that.” Sophomore Kayla Ostrom’s setting was on point...
