The Lipscomb Lady Bisons (10-5, 3-1) volleyball team defeated the Stetson Hatters (4-15, 1-3) in four sets on Friday night in Allen Arena.
Lipscomb came out swinging, serving and scoring early and dominated the first set, blitzing the Hatters to take the first set 25-14. The first set saw the Lady Bisons accumulate more kills (15) than the Hatters had points (14).
In the second set, Lipscomb came out and set the tone early, taking an early 10-1 lead. Lipscomb received some of that help from the bench.
“Some of our bench got some valuable experience today,” head coach Brandon Rosenthal said.
The second set ended with Lipscomb pulling away from the Hatters 25-13 for another double-digit set win.
“I thought we came out and did a really nice job executing in the first two sets,” Rosenthal said.
Sophomore Lauren Anderson, who is third on the team in kills, (131) lead the Lady Bisons with six kills in the first two sets.
Two Lady Bisons, senior Katie Bradley and junior Brittany Thomas, finished the second set with 1.000 hit percentages.
However, the Bisons began the third set flat, and the Hatters would take their first lead of the match in the third set 10-9 and increase it to a 13-10 lead.
“We didn’t necessarily come out with as much urgency,” Rosenthal said. “It was one of those situations where she (Thomas) wasn’t necessarily playing her best and being asked to lead.”
Stetson would not allow Lipscomb’s early dominance to keep them down, increasing their lead to 17-12.
“Any leadership role — when you’re not at your best you kind of feel or you hesitate — because you’re like ‘How do I have room to talk?’ and I was trying to explain to her that regardless of how you’re playing, you’re the leader,” Rosenthal said. “It’s a great learning lesson.”
The two teams slugged it out down the stretch from there, each not taking more than a one point lead. The set went back-and-forth until Stetson took a 23-20 lead.
The Hatters used great blocking to seal the set 25-20. They held Lipscomb to a .108 hit percentage, while posting a .391 percentage. Previous to that set, Stetson had posted a .222 percentage.
Lipscomb rebounded in the fourth set and jumped out to a 9-4 lead and never looked back, as the Lady Bisons cruised the rest of the way and finished where they began, winning the fourth and final set 25-13.
“I think there’s a lot of great stuff we can take away from today,” Rosenthal noted.
The Lady Bisons play Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday, October 8 at 5 p.m. in Allen Arena.
Photo courtesy of Lipscomb Athletics