by Kailey Schuyler | Oct 28, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb volleyball team lost their six-match win streak to Stetson in an intense five-set battle in Allen Arena. The Hatters defeated the Bison’s 3-2. “Our message all week was about how good Stetson is defensive. Even though you know it’s going to happen, they do a fantastic job,” said head coach Brandon Rosenthal. The Bison’s got off to a hot start leading 16-6 early in the first set. The Hatter’s fought back to within two, but the Bison’s pulled out the first set 25-20. Set two started out in a very similar fashion. Lipscomb had the lead 17-10. However, Stetson’s defense wasn’t going to give up easily. A quick surge tied them 17-17. After a hard-fought set, the Hatter’s secured the set 27-25. “Set two was kind of weird. We just couldn’t get it done and unfortunately. I didn’t make a quick enough sub in a couple places, and they beat us down the stretch of set two,” says Rosenthal. After also losing set three the Bison’s made a comeback in Set 4. They made an offensive surge to secure the set 25-23. “Set 4 I thought we did a nice job, again, executing down the stretch wasn’t there, but that was the issue all day for us,” says Rosenthal. Lipscomb got out early in the fifth set leading 4-0. They eventually took kept their lead 10-8, forcing Stetson to call a timeout. After the break, Stetson dominated and won the set 15-13. “We have to learn from this, unfortunately. But, this is a special group and I would imagine we will take it a step further,” says...
by Spencer Boehme | Oct 13, 2018 | News Slider, Sports
In an ASUN volleyball match featuring the surging Lipscomb Bisons and the struggling Jacksonville Dolphins, Saturday’s contest went exactly as expected. The Bisons (11-8, 6-1 ASUN) limited the Dolphins (2-18, 1-7 ASUN) to an average of 11.6 points per set in a 3-0 thrashing at Allen Arena. “If [Jacksonville is] able to get comfortable, it gets kind of tricky,” Lipscomb coach Brandon Rosenthal said. “[But] I thought we added the pressure right from the beginning, and we never let up from that.” It was a tough day for the Dolphins, who combined for a hitting percentage of .041. Junior outside hitter Mallory Mattingly led the team with seven kills, but she also committed 10 errors and posted a hitting average of minus-.083. “Going into this match it was just about [keeping] the pressure,” Rosenthal said. “We wanted them to change because of us.” The star of the game was Bisons senior middle blocker Ca’Layci Coffey, who led the match with 14 kills and a hitting average of .737. Rosenthal called her “one of the hardest workers on the team.” “When she’s on, she’s on,” Rosenthal said. “And (the) past couple matches she’s really been able to turn it up just a little bit more each time.” The Bisons started the day with a 25-13 win in the first set. The Dolphins kept it close at first and were only down 9-7 before Lipscomb broke away. Coffey led the way with four kills, and senior outside hitter Carlyle Nusbaum scored the set point on a kill that landed in the back of Jacksonville’s territory. In the second set, the Bisons...
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 Brianne Welch | Feb 10, 2015 | Sports
What started out as a fun team bonding activity has turned into a small hand lettering art business for junior volleyball player Molly Spitznagle. “This summer we as a volleyball team had a lot of off time, and we all are here in the summer, so we had this thing called art club,” Spitznagle said. “We would do it and Jewell Dobson and I just kind of stuck to it.” Spitznagle credited senior Jewell Dobson for helping her get started in hand lettering. Once she got her start over the summer, she kept at it, and now does different kinds of lettering on canvases. “A lot of them are like Bible verses or quotes or sayings. I’ve done some name canvases for rooms or something like that, but they’re mostly lettering quotes.” The initial idea didn’t involve making any money, but it slowly turned in to a fundraising outlet to raise money for her yearly mission trip to Honduras. “I wanted to find a way that I could fundraise for myself, and I really enjoy art and painting and lettering and stuff like that, so I thought that I could make money off of canvases,” Spitznagle said. “It’s really popular right now, so it’s kind of expanded from there and blown up.” Now that Spitznagle has raised enough money for her mission trip, she has other plans for the canvases. As an athlete, it is hard for her to find time for a job to make spending money, so she decided to share her talents with the public. “I’ve just kind of tried to make it into a little side...
