2014-15 Lipscomb Athletics Annual Report

2014-15 ATHLETICS STAFF

Return to NCAATwo Lipscomb teamsearned return visits toNCAA post-season play.Baseball won the A-SunTournament to earn a berthin the Nashville Regional,and Volleyball gained anat-large berth to the NCAALexington Regional.

ADMINISTRATION & SUPPORT STAFFPhilip Hutcheson ........................................................Director of AthleticsSherry Phillips ....................................................Administrative Assistant Frank Bennett .......................................Associate A.D. for Internal AffairsJohn Ezell ................................Associate A.D. for Compliance & Budgets Sherie Eubanks ...................................Assistant, Compliance/Academics Dr. Lin Garner ............Associate A.D. for Academics/Sr. Woman Admin. Andy Lane ..............................................Associate A.D. for Development Brent High ....................................Associate A.D. for Spiritual Formation Paul Nance ........................Director of Creative & Development ServicesPhillip Beeman........................Coordinator of Athletic Business ServicesDr. Kent Johnson ....................................Faculty Athletic Representative

EXTERNAL AFFAIRSGarner Goode ..............................................Director of Sales & MarketingMark McGee ...........................Senior Publisher/Media Relations Director Jamie Gilliam ..................................Director of Athletic CommunicationsKirk Downs.......................................................Communications AssistantLogan Butts......................................................Communications AssistantBrooke Fay ..................................................Marketing Graduate AssistantAustin Gwin............................................Coordinator of Video Operations

BASEBALLJeff Forehand ...........................................................................Head Coach Paul Phillips .......................................................................Assistant Coach James Ogden ......................................................................Pitching CoachBrian Ryman......................Operations Director / Recruiting CoordinatorBrad Coon.....................................................................Volunteer AssistantLogan Hostettler...........................................................Graduate Assistant

MEN'S BASKETBALLCasey Alexander ......................................................................Head Coach Roger Idstrom..........................................................Associate Head CoachDwight Evans, Steve Drabyn .........................................Assistant Coaches Adam Jones ..........................................Director of Basketball OperationsKim Lillicrap ...............................Administrative Assistant for Basketball

WOMEN'S BASKETBALLGreg Brown ..............................................................................Head Coach Courtney Locke ........................................................Associate Head CoachKatherine Graham, Anna Bowers ................................Assistant CoachesClay Crothers...................................................................Student Assistant

CHEERLEADINGShawn Despot, Amy Hillin ............................................................Coaches

CROSS COUNTRY (MEN & WOMEN)Bill Taylor ............................................................Director of Cross Country Luke Syverson, Marcus Evans, Jenny Randolph, Benton Reed

..................................................................................Asstistant Coaches Kristin Cupido ...............................................................Graduate AssistantTabetha Taylor ............................................................Volunteer Assistant

MEN’S GOLFWill Brewer ..............................................................................Head CoachBen Pellicani..................................................................................Assistant

WOMEN’S GOLFBuddy Harston .........................................................................Head Coach

MEN'S SOCCERCharles Morrow ........................................................................Head Coach John Michael Hayden ........................................................Assistant CoachRyan Wehking ..............................................................Graduate AssistantGarrett McLaughlin......................................................Volunteer Assistant

WOMEN'S SOCCERKevin O’Brien ...........................................................................Head Coach Kelsey Fenix .............................................................Associate Head CoachShannon O’Brien ...............................................................Assistant CoachAlyssa Telang...............................................................Volunteer Assistant

SOFTBALLKristin Ryman ..........................................................................Head Coach Megan Rhodes Smith, J.J. Dillingham .........................Assistant CoachesIvy Renfroe ..................................................................Volunteer Assistant

STRENGTH & CONDITIONINGJohn Hudy ......................................................................................Director Will Osburn ....................................................................Assistant DirectorSteve Mason .......................................................................Assistant CoachJon Flinn.......................................................................Volunteer Assistant

MEN’S TENNISMario Hernandez .....................................................................Head Coach Geoff Hernandez................................................................Assistant Coach

WOMEN’S TENNISJamie Aid ..................................................................................Head CoachOliver Strecker...................................................................Assistant Coach

TRACK & FIELD (MEN & WOMEN)

Bill Taylor .............................................................Director of Track & Field Luke Syverson, Marcus Evans, Jenny Randolph, Benton Reed

....................................................................................Assistant Coaches Kristin Cupido ...............................................................Graduate AssistantTabetha Taylor ............................................................Volunteer Assistant

VOLLEYBALLBrandon Rosenthal .................................................................Head Coach Billy Ebel, Ann Armes, Dak Sivertson ..........................Assistant Coaches

SPORTS MEDICINEWill Ness ...................................................................Head Athletic Trainer Clint Woods, Hilarie Buck, Maggie Schweer .........................Athletic TrainersKelsey Ferguson, Mark Forbing ..........................................Athletic Trainers

ATHLETIC OPERATIONSBrian Ryman ..........................................................Director of Operations Alex Ross ................................................Assistant Director of Operations Lint Smith .................................................Director of Grounds & FacilitiesAlexander McMeen.......................................................Graduate Assistant

2013-14 ANNUAL REPORT 1

450-Win MilestoneLipscomb Baseball Coach Jeff Forehandearned his 450th career win with a 6-3victory at Northern Kentucky on May 14.A T H L E T I C S

2014-15 ANNUAL REPORT

2 A NOTE from the Director of Athletics

3 HONORS: The James R. Byers Award

5 ACADEMICS: Lipscomb retains Academic championship

7 SWEEP2: Cross Country teams repeat as A-Sun champs

10 A HIGHER PURPOSE: Kevin O’Brien sets team priorities

14 GAME CHANGER: Get to know Anna Buhigas

16 CHAMPIONS: Men’s Soccer captures first A-Sun crown

20 THE 300: A list of Lipscomb Athletics’ valued supporters

21 STING LIKE A BEE: Nobody takes Lipscomb Volleyball lightly

24 THE NUMBERS: These 10 events shaped the year in Athletics

26 DAWSON: This freshman golfer did something very special

30 GROWING PAINS: Men’s Basketball made some great gains

33 A FAMILY AFFAIR: Sherry Phillips ended 34 years on campus

35 BEEN THERE: Jamie Aid is turning around Women’s Tennis

38 PROGRESS: Allen Arena and McQuiddy Gym makeovers

40 THE LIPPY AWARDS: Student-Athletes take center stage

43 MOMENTUM: Track & Field teams continue to excel

45 BECAUSE WE CAN:What Softball has learned in 20 years

48 PRIME TIME: You might see Brianne Welch on TV very soon

50 BROTHERS: The Lee family has three reasons to watch

51 THREE-STEPS: Jeff Forehand has discovered keys to success

54 SPIRITUAL FORMATION: Mission trips and community aid

57 BREAKING NEWS: Four stories hot off the press

www.lipscombsports.comwww.facebook.com/LipscombSportswww.twitter.com/LipscombBisons

This Annual Report is produced byLipscomb Athletics Office of Creative Services

Director of Athletics Philip HutchesonEditor W. Paul Nance

Features Writer Mark McGeeProofreader Dr. Lin GarnerPhotography Jamie Gilliam, Kristi Jones

Production Assistant Lindsey Nance

“AND THEN SOME”

As a young teenager, I remember watching Coach DonMeyer give a presentation entitled “And Then Some.” It waspart speech and part magic trick. He started by appearing toempty a small pitcher of water into a glass. He then talkedabout working hard every day, giving all you had, continualimprovement and other inspiring ideas. After a few minutes,he stopped, said something about “giving all you’ve got…andthen some.” Then he immediately poured more water intothe cup – out of what had seemed to be an empty pitcher!

Over 30 years later, I think I know the trick, but I’m sure Iunderstand the point.

Coach Meyer was trying to impress upon the audiencethat everyone ought to pour all they could into every class,practice, workout, game, job or day they had. And then, evenwhen they thought they had given their all, he used the illus-tration to say that through unrelenting work, extraordinarypersistence and uncommon faith, people could find a way todo more than they ever thought possible in whatever the cir-cumstances they faced.

That was the idea behind “And Then Some.”

fIn many ways, I’ve reflected on 2014-2015 as just such

an “And Then Some” year. Coming into this past school year,on the heels of a 2013-2014 that saw new heights and ac-complishments by so many of our programs, it seemed as ifwe might need to take a year or two to “refill the pitcher.”

Instead, we poured out even more!We followed up in the classroom not only by repeating

as the A-Sun All-Academic champ but also by smashing theall-time conference record for the highest percentage of stu-dent athletes with a 3.0 or higher GPA.

In competition, we won more regular season champi-onships, had more All-Conference team members, sentmore student athletes to NCAA Championship competitionsand finished higher in the A-Sun’s All Sports Race than everbefore in any single year in the history of Lipscomb Athletics.

Off the field, we had our “And Then Some” moments too.We again set a new record in terms of our annual fundrais-ing. We improved the lighting in Allen Arena by over 100%.We added HD jumbo screens on both ends of the floor. Wemade significant improvements to the corridors outside ourlocker rooms, and we produced more ESPN3 broadcaststhan ever before. And outside, at Dugan Field, we conducteda complete overhaul of the existing batting cage as the be-ginning steps of a plan for several other improvements thatare slated for the 2015-16 year and beyond.

Above all of that, we experienced continued and newgrowth in our goal of being the premier Christian athletics

program among the entire NCAA Division I landscape.We continued our weekly FCA meetings and semi-an-

nual retreats. We increased the number of service opportu-nities for our different teams. We expanded the one-on-oneand small group mentoring sessions by our Spiritual Forma-tion teams. We sent over 25% of our student athletes over-seas on one of five different mission trips. We established anew service and mentoring partnership with Nashville’sCarter Lawrence Elementary School. And we began our new555 Student Athlete prayer campaign that saw every athleteon every team prayed for daily by coaches, staff, alumni andfans.

Simply put, we poured out a lot over the past few years.But in looking back on this year as a whole, we did all of that…And Then Some…in 2014-15.

fSo what’s in store for 2015-2016? How do we get even

more out of this coming year? How do we surpass previoushighs in the Classroom, in Competition, in service to ourCommunity and in reflecting Christ in all we do? Like Coachsaid, it requires unusual effort. It requires unflinching dedica-tion. It requires unrelenting persistence. And it requires un-common faith.

And that’s what you will see from us. We are committed to all of these ideals and we will con-

tinue to get all we have…And Then Some…out of the opportu-nities we have been given. We will continue competing at theHighest Level of NCAA athletic competition while always re-flecting the Higher Calling that we all claim.

fAs always, I use the word “We” to include each of you.

Those of you reading this are just as big a part of our team asany player, coach, manager or staff member might be. Yoursupport, your encouragement, your contributions and yourpresence at our events are all crucial parts of our success.We could not have done it without you and I cannot let thismoment go by without saying “THANK YOU” to each of youwho have chosen to invest in Lipscomb University Athletics.You are making an eternal difference in the life of this univer-sity and in the lives of our student athletes!

I am thankful you chose to be a part of our program thisyear. I am hopeful you will commit to supporting us again inthis coming school year. And I am confident you will enjoyspending a few minutes reading about the year that we alljust enjoyed!

Looking forward to the same in 2015-16…And ThenSome!

Philip HutchesonDIRECTOR of ATHLETICS

From the Athletic Director

2 LIPSCOMB ATHLETICS


Josh LeeA psychology major from Franklin, Tennessee, Josh

transferred to Lipscomb after playing baseball at Vander-bilt and Central ArizonaCollege and immediatelybecame a leader in theBison baseball team’scommunity service. Josh is known as a

servant leader amongseveral leaders on histeam and has activelyengaged in several proj-ects which demonstratehis passion for servingkids: the Albert PujolsFoundation prom for kidswith Downs Syndrome,

an awareness picnic for boys in foster care at MonroeHarding Children’s Home, and the Baseball ChallengerLeague’s teaching special needs kids to play baseball. In the summer of 2014 he joined his teammates in a

mission trip to the Dominican Republic where theyrenovated a local sandlot.

April TerryApril is a Lipscomb record holder in three track and field

events: shot put, weight throw, and hammer. A native of Lit-tle Rock, Arkansas majoringin Interdisciplinary TeachingK-6, April has exemplified

outstanding leadership notonly within the AthleticDepartment but also withinthe university as a whole.The Student AthleteAdvisory Committee hasthrived under that leader-ship, and in 2014 April wasthe prime motivator behindthe inaugural Lippys,Lipscomb Athletics’ version

of the ESPYs. She worked hard to integrate athletes withtheir campus peers and in 2014-15 was honored with selec-tion to the Presidential Ambassadors Council, serving variousconstituencies of the university. She was the first Lipscomb athlete to be elected to the

Atlantic Sun Conference Student-Athlete AdvisoryCommittee—in the role of Vice Chair.

The James R. Byers Award is the highest award presented by Lipscomb athletics.The award is given annually to the top senior female and male athletes who displayoutstanding Christian leadership and show academic and athletic excellence.

The James R. Byers Award

Director of Athletics PhilipHutcheson presented Terryand Lee with their awardsat the Lippys, LipscombAthletics’ version of theESPY Awards.


AprilTerry

JoshLee

The James R. Byers AwardThe highest honor an active Lipscomb athlete can receive,

the James R. Byers Award is given annually to the top femaleand male senior athletes that display outstanding Christianleadership and show academic and athletic excellence.

1978 Mark CarterBASEBALL

1979 Ralph TurnerMEN’S BASKETBALL

1980 Mike CunninghamBASEBALL

1981 Chuck HamarBASEBALL

1982 Alan BanksMEN’S BASKETBALL

1983 Andy DukesMEN’S TENNIS

1984 Nina PedigoWOMEN’S BASKETBALL

1985 Mark JosephBASEBALL

1986 Richard BeasleyTRACK

1987 Patti BandyWOMEN’S BASKETBALL

1988 Michelle ParkerWOMEN’S BASKETBALL

1989 Kim PuckettWOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Keith HerstonBASEBALL

1990 Kim WilliamsWOMEN’S TENNIS

Philip HutchesonMEN’S BASKETBALL

1991 Stephanie ShouseWOMEN’S TENNIS

Mike CarmodyMEN’S TENNIS

1992 Nina HausmannWOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Dan DragomireCROSS COUNTRY/TRACK

1993 Kim HerronWOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Daniel DennisonMEN’S BASKETBALL

1994 Libby BurwellWOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Eric GroganMEN’S TENNIS

1995 Jennifer WoodWOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Andy McQueenMEN’S BASKETBALL

1996 Lynn RandolphWOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Justin MorganMEN’S SOCCER

1997 Julie GroganWOMEN’S TENNIS

John HoltMEN’S BASKETBALL

1998 Susan FaulknerWOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Angela SheltonVOLLEYBALL

Andy BlackstonMEN’S BASKETBALL

1999 Jennifer BellWOMEN’S TENNIS

Tim LavenderCROSS COUNTRY

2000 Susan BryantWOMEN’S TENNIS

Josh WillefordBASEBALL

2001 Jamie GleavesSOFTBALL

Jim MadduxMEN’S SOCCER

2002 Shelley SimsWOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Kyle StephensMEN’S BASKETBALL

2003 Kelley WadeWOMEN’S SOCCER

Danny NormanMEN’S TENNIS

2004 Kristin PeckSOFTBALL/VOLLEYBALL

Jeff MadduxMEN’S SOCCER

2005 Lynn RollerWOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Julie HollidayVOLLEYBALL

Derek BerlinMEN’S GOLF

2006 Ruth MickCROSS COUNTRY/TRACK

Andrew HarrisMEN’S TENNIS

2007 Emily EllisWOMEN’S TENNIS

Lindsey RutherfordVOLLEYBALL

Robbie SmithsonBASEBALL

2008 Rachel DavisWOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Jason HopkinsMEN’S BASKETBALL

2009 Miriam McAlisterWOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Andrew MizellMEN’S TENNIS

2010 Lauren DortwegtSOFTBALL

Ryan ChastainCROSS COUNTRY/TRACK

2011 Jenna BartsokasWOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Josh SlaterMEN’S BASKETBALL

2012 Whitney KiihnlSOFTBALL

Justin GlennMEN’S BASKETBALL

2013 Hannah PhillipsWOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Ethan SummersMEN’S SOCCER

2014 Caitlin DotsonVOLLEYBALL

Tessa HoefleCROSS COUNTRY/TRACK

Tucker PeabodyTRACK & FIELD

2015 April TerryTRACK & FIELD

Josh LeeBASEBALL


With a league record 85.9% of Lipscomb University'sstudent athletes earning a 3.0 grade point average orhigher during the 2014-15 academic year, the Bisons

have repeated as the Atlantic Sun Conference academic cham-pions.Lipscomb had a league-best 262 out of 305 total student

athletes finish above the 3.0 threshold to win the award for thesecond straight year. Northern Kentucky University finished adistant second with 69.5% of its student athletes earning con-ference scholar honors just ahead of Florida Gulf Coast, whichnotched a 67.5% mark."Of all of the awards that we could win, the academic trophy is

one of the ones I am most proud of, and it is truly a team effort,”said Lipscomb Director of Athletics Philip Hutcheson. “Obvi-ously, the student athletes who put in the hard work to excelboth in competition and the classroom deserve tremendouscredit and I am proud of so many of them for proving that thewords ‘student’ and ‘athlete’ are not mutually exclusive.“In addition, I am thankful for a fantastic faculty who works

with our student athletes, both instructing and advising them insuch a way as to give them the best chance to succeed. And Iam appreciative that we have a group of coaches who make it apoint to encourage our students to excel academically as well asathletically.”Lipscomb also led the way with nine Bisons earning Presi-

dent’s Scholar honors as each finished their academic careerswith a 3.8 GPA or higher. They were joined by 13 Lipscomb sen-iors, who earned commissioner scholar honors with a GPA be-tween 3.6 and 3.79, and 11 seniors, who finished their careerswith a GPA between 3.40 and 3.599 to earn conference scholarhonors.“Dr. Lin Garner (Associate AD for Academics), Sherie Eubanks

(administrative assistant for compliance and academics), Dr.Kent Johnson (faculty athletics representative) and Dr. BrianMast (senior director of the academic success center) deservespecial recognition in this accomplishment,” said Hutcheson.“These four people have been instrumental leaders with our teams in helping them to achieve the heights they have reached and I appreciate their expertise and enthusiasm in helping us once again earn this award."

BRAININGCHAMPS


CoSIDA Capital One Academic National TeamLauren Ford (volleyball) First Team

CoSIDA District 3 Capital One All-AcademicBarbara Lee Ball (XC/T&F) First TeamBrittany Elmore (softball) First TeamLauren Ford (volleyball) First TeamKayla Ostrom (volleyball) First Team

Atlantic Sun Scholar Athlete of the YearAnna Buhigas (women’s soccer)Lauren Ford (volleyball)Sally Larson (cross country)Ian Martinez-McGraw (baseball)

A-Sun Presidents’ ScholarsSara Bliss (women’s basketball)Laura Dukes (softball)Lauren Ford (volleyball)Tyler Glenn (men’s XC and T & F)Kendra Jones (women’s XC and T & F)Paul Klein-Kracht (men’s golf)Kaitlyn Llewellyn (women’s XC and T&F)Megan Stout (volleyball)Brianne Welch (softball)

A-Sun Commissioner’s ScholarsAlexander Berry (men’s track and field)Daniel Coleman (men’s track and field)Minna Fields (women’s XC and T&F)Danay Fothergill (women’s basketball)Sophie Kellerman (volleyball)Adam Lee (baseball)Caleb Love (men’s track and field)Ian Martinez-McGraw (baseball)Paige Neely (softball)Alex Newby (women’s cross country)Caston Roberts (men’s golf)Joseph Sanderson (men’s T&F)Jason Ziegler (baseball)

Conference ScholarsWill Blalock (baseball)Frank Combs (men’s golf)Karli Crosby (women’s soccer)Kayla Droessler (women’s XC and T&F)Robert Johnson (men’s soccer)Samantha Khan (women’s golf)Joshua Lee (baseball)Sarah McFarlin (women’s golf)Griffin Moore (baseball)Kenny Smith (men’s T&F)Ashley Southern (women’s basketball)

Atlantic Sun Academic All-ConferenceBarbara Lee Ball (cross country)*Barbara Lee Ball (in & outdoor T&F)Sara Bliss (women’s basketball)Anna Buhigas (women’s soccer)Anthony Cedano (men’s soccer)*Dan Coleman (outdoor T&F)Brittany Elmore (softball)Minna Fields (outdoor T&F)Danay Fothergill (women’s basketball)*Lauren Ford (volleyball)*Juan Gonzalez (indoor track)*Robbie Johnson (men’s soccer)Melissa Kromer (women’s tennis)Sally Larson (cross country)*Sally Larson (in and outdoor T&F)*Adam Lee (baseball)*Daniel Lenart (in and outdoor T&F)Kaitlyn Llewellyn (outdoor T&F)*Caleb Love (outdoor T&F)*Ian Martinez-McGraw (baseball)Rob Mitchell (men’s tennis)Paige Neely (softball)*Wayne Newman (in & outdoor T&F)Kayla Ostrom (volleyball)Tanner Sanders (softball)April Terry (indoor T&F)Jared Wingerter (cross country)Jason Ziegler (baseball)

NOTESTo be eligible for Capital One-CoSIDA

(College Sports Information Directors ofAmerica) Academic All-America® consid-eration, a student-athlete must be a var-sity starter or key reserve, maintain acumulative G.P.A. of 3.30 on a scale of4.00, have reached sophomore athleticand academic standings at his or her cur-rent institution and be nominated by thesports information director for the ath-lete’s sport.

The Atlantic Sun Academic All-Confer-ence Team recognizes student-athleteswho excel both on the field and in theclassroom and who also exemplify the A-Sun’s mission of “Building Winners ForLife”. All the members of the team have aminimum 3.3 grade point average andparticipated in at least half of their team’sgames.

*unanimous selection

BRAIN

There’s a budding dynasty lo-cated at Lipscomb, and 2014

was its most successful year yet.

Lipscomb’s cross country programswept the men’s and women’s At-lantic Sun Championships in 2014.It was the fourth consecutive cham-pionship for the women’s team andthe second in a row for the men. Sixtitles in four years between the twoof them.

"We are very proud of the way themen and women have competedand all the success they have had,”Lipscomb Director of Cross Countryand Track and Field Bill Taylor said.

Women Blazed the Trail

The Lady Bisons landed seven run-ners on the A-Sun All-Conferenceteams. Madi Talbert, Paige Stoner,Dani Walker and Sally Larson all placedon the First Team. Barbara Lee Ball,Minna Fields and Kayla Montgomery allmade the Second Team.

Talbert, with a blazing time of 17:35.95 atthe conference finals, earned A-Sun Run-ner of the Year. Stoner was named A-SunFreshman of the Year after running a timeof 17:40.05 at the championships.

The team’s overall score of 21 was thelowest in program history and the secondlowest in the history of the A-Sun, just

two points away from the conferencerecord.

All of the success has painted a target onLipscomb’s back as the de-facto team tobeat in the A-Sun, the team all of the oth-ers base their own success off of.

“Winning four in a row for the women isan amazing accomplishment,” Taylorsaid. “Hopefully we will win five, six ormore.

“It's tough when you are on top. Everyone

is trying to take you down. We havea pretty amazing culture and tradi-tion now. It will be hard to beat us.”

The Men Followed Suit

The men’s squad landed four run-ners on the A-Sun All-Conferenceteam on the way to winning back-to-back titles.

Juan Gonzalez, Daniel Gardner andChristian Freeman earned spots onthe First Team, and Jared Wingertermade it on to the Second Team.

"For the men it was a surprise re-ally,” Taylor said. “We were rankedthird in the A-Sun going in.”

The team’s total score was 38,edging out the higher rankedsquads from Northern Kentuckyand North Florida.

“We had three really good guys,” Taylorsaid. “A top runner that had missed al-most the whole season was coming backfrom an injury in track, so we didn't knowhow he would do.

“We didn't have anyone as our numberfive runner. A cross country team is onlyas good as its fifth scoring runner. At theA-Sun the guys stepped up huge, and wehad a guy run the race of his life to be astrong number five. It was an amazingwin.”

For the Second Consecutive Year, Lipscomb’s Women and Men Swept the

Atlantic Sun Cross Country Championshipsby Logan Butts

King of the HillTo nobody’s surprise, Bill Taylor (center) was awarded Coach of the Yearfor both men and women. He is pictured here with Lipscomb assistantBenton Reed (left) and A-Sun Assistant Commissioner Mike Hagen.

2SWEEP



"The men also have a tough road to main-tain their position on top of the confer-ence,” Taylor said. “We have a lot ofreturning talent though, and add a bunchof guys to the mix next year. We want tohave a run of championships like thewomen.”

After the domination at the A-Sun Cham-pionships, Lipscomb took on the NCAADivision I South Regional Championshipsin Tallahassee, Florida. The women’steam finished fourth overall in the com-petition behind powerhouses FloridaState, Vanderbilt and Alabama. The men’ssquad finished in 11th place.

Both Talbert and Gardner earned All-Re-gion honors thanks to times of 20:20.5and 31:03.5, respectively.

Pride in Academics

Lipscomb’s success is not limited to on-the-field feats either. Ball, Larson andWingerter were named to the A-Sun Aca-demic All-Conference team, and Larsontook home the title of A-Sun Cross Coun-try Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

With a surprise win earning them back-to-back titles, Taylor wants the men’steam to go on a championship streak likethe women. It’s tough to stay on top when

all of the other teams are gunning foryour spot, but he believes the pieces arethere to remain steadily in place.

Four-time Atlantic Sun Conference Women’s Champions: (left to right) Madi Talbert, Katie Bianchini, Kendra Lobley, Barbara Lee Ball, Dani Walker,Sally Larson, Paige Stoner, Minna Fields, Kayla Montgomery.

Extra Credit: Not only did the Lipscomb women capture their fourth consecutive championship,they posted their lowest score in program history, only two points shy of an Atlantic Sun record.

Despite all of the individual and team ac-colades, Taylor believes the teams havenot reached their peak yet. He believesthe Lipscomb cross country dynasty isjust getting started.

"Our ultimate goals for both programs areto qualify for NCAA Division I NationalChampionships, and eventually to winNationals,” Taylor said. “The women arecloser to that goal right now. A program-best fourth place finish last year has thewomen right there. A lot of the girls tookbig steps forward this track season. Wehave a strong chance this fall.”

Two-time Atlantic Sun Conference Men’s Champions:Mitch Zabka, Sam Remington, Daniel Lenart, Jared Daedler, Jared Wingerter, Daniel Gard-ner, D.A. Lowery, Christian Freeman, Juan Gonzalez

Madi TalbertAtlantic Sun Runner of the Year

Paige StonerAtlantic Sun Freshman of the Year


Kevin O’Brien’s faith in God isone of his passions, and he

clearly took a leap of faithwhen he accepted hisfirst head coaching jobto direct the LipscombLady Bisons soccerteam.

by Mark McGee

Switching from men’s soccer towomen’s soccer, O’Brien tookover a program that had never

won more than four games in a seasonor more than two in the conference andhad never had a winning record in NCAADivision I.“What drew me to the program, ulti-

mately, was the Lord,” O’Brien said. “Ithink it is unique at the Division I level tobe able to marry your passion for yourfaith with your passion for soccer. Forme it was like, `wow’, it is exciting that Iget to do both.“Then obviously it was the chance to

build something from relative scratch.There had been a program for quite afew years, but it had not achieved awhole lot in the Division I era. I like thosekinds of challenges. I am a guy wholikes the underdogs. I like to do thingspeople don’t expect to happen.”He has quickly turned the program

around and admits the transformationhas been faster than he anticipated.In 2014 the Lady Bisons finished 10-

7-2 overall and 4-2-1 in the Atlantic Sun.The 10 wins broke the school record formost wins in a season. They also set anew record for shutouts in a seasonwith 11 and most shots in a season with262.

They lost in double overtime 1-0 toKennesaw State in the semifinals of the2014 A-Sun Tournament. In 2013 theymade their first trip to the tournamentin school history.“It has been faster than I would have

guessed in terms of results on thefield,” O’Brien said. “That all boils downto the players giving everything for thisprogram.

“I think our coaching staff is prettygood, but ultimately the players get theresults. There is a greater commitmentlevel and willingness to sacrifice for theteam than ever before. The players areexcited to play for each other, knowingthat when they do this…God will be glo-rified. We are just competing at a higherlevel than we have before.”

The Right People

O’Brien came to Lipscomb in Febru-ary of 2012. He had been the associatehead coach and recruiting coordinatorat Davidson College since 2009. He hadalso served as an assistant at NorthCarolina-Charlotte, Creighton, OregonState and Presbyterian College.He served with a number of talented

and lauded coaches and learned fromeach one of them. Like the majority ofstrong leaders O’Brien knew he wasgoing to need help to change the cul-ture and provide guidance.He added Christopher Klotz, Kelsey

“The first thing I did wassurround myself with anincredible staff.”

– Kevin O’Brien


A Higher


The Right People: One of O’Brien’s first moves as head coach was to hire assistants Kelsey Fenix(left), Chris Klotz (center) and Shannon O’Brien.

Fenix and Shannon O’Brien as his assis-tants.“The first thing I did was surround

myself with an incredible staff,” O’Briensaid. “John Maxwell said it is `not thewhat, it is the who’. It was what I neededto do for the players in order for them tocatch fire. I knew all three of them hadincredible playing pedigrees but more-over were incredible people. “That was the first challenge for me. I

knew who I was going to surround my-self with was going to be pivotal interms of making a change. We had to belike-minded and all on the same page.Each staff member spent extensivetime doing sports ministry, and we eachknew that with the right implementationwe could have a team that not onlyserved God well, but could be very com-petitive at the D-1 level.”

Changing the Culture

Once he had his staff in place it wastime to sort out the players he had in-herited and look to the future in recruit-ing. He discovered that some playersweren’t truly enjoying the experience ofplaying soccer at Lipscomb. “There were a lot of players who were

in the program because it was Division Iand it was in Nashville,” O’Brien said. “Itwasn’t because they loved Lipscomb.They were here to play soccer and theywere solely focused on that.“To me that needed to change. There

needed to be desire and interest in theuniversity mission as well as a desire toplay Division I soccer in a great city. Ijust didn’t think we were playing withthe joy that a Lipscomb soccer playershould play with.”From his talks and observations with

players he realized some of them mightenjoy soccer more if they were playingin a different environment. “They liked the soccer piece but they

didn’t like the other parts,” O’Brien said.

“The negative impressions they had ofthe school didn’t allow them to enjoysoccer the way they needed to. A lot ofthat was because some players werehere with the wrong motivation.”O’Brien explains he knew that had to

change and he started to have sometough conversations with some of hisplayers.“You can be an awesome player, but if

you don’t love the vision of this placeand the culture we are creating, then itmight not be a great fit moving for-ward,” O’Brien said. “As crazy as it was, Iknew some players would have a more

“You can be an awesomeplayer, but if you don’tlove the vision...”

– Kevin O’Brien

fulfilling college experience in a new en-vironment and several chose to head inthat direction.”“I’ve learned over 15 years of D-1 soc-

cer coaching that culture and ‘buy in’are way more important to sustainedsuccess than what a few talented play-ers might have added for a brief periodof time.”When he evaluated players on the

field, he saw a lack of commitment fromsome and a failure to understand thesacrifices it takes to be a top flight Divi-sion I player. The hours of work on thefield, in the weight room and in videosessions were all ramped up.O’Brien got mixed results from those

efforts.“Some of the players were like, `yes,

this is what I want’,” O’Brien said. “Somewere saying maybe this is a little toomuch for us.“We had some players who trans-

ferred out because it was more thanthey bargained for or expected. I

Purpose in Mind


wanted them to have a great college ex-perience. We helped players to find aplace where they could have a fulfillingcollege experience. I still get texts fromthose girls who left. It is awesome thatthey are finding great satisfactionwhere they ended up.”

Recruiting for God

O’Brien has a strong national reputa-tion for his ability to recruit. But even headmits that he was a little wary of theresults when he took the approach ofsearching for players who were as dedi-cated to their faith in God as they wereto being successful soccer players.“It has been a total plus,” O’Brien said.

“I was scared to step in that directionbut so thankful that I did.”O’Brien received great encourage-

ment from Bill Taylor, director of crosscountry and track and field, who takes asimilar approach to his recruiting. Tay-lor stressed that when you commit toyour vision, in time, you start seeing re-sults.“I knew we would be appealing to a

smaller segment of the Division I land-scape,” O’Brien said. “But it has been atotal positive. It is surprising how manyparents and players are looking for thekind of environment we offer. There areplayers who could be playing for BCSschools who are saying we want to bewhere God is. That is us. That is wherethey want to be.”O’Brien is up front with recruits from

day one about what he expects from hisplayers both on and off the field. Hesends a PDF to potential recruits outlin-ing the mission of the program.“It outlines where our priorities are

going to be,” O’Brien said. “This is not awin-at-all-costs program which you’llfind in a lot of other Division 1 environ-ments.“This is about having a great testi-

mony and glorifying God in how youplay. It is about the effort we put in. I be-lieve as we do well on the field it in-creases our platform for God. You wantto find kids who get jazzed up aboutthat.”The mission statements for both

coaches and players are the litmus test

for how serious a player might be inconsidering Lipscomb.The coaches’ statement says, “The

Lipscomb Women’s Soccer Program iscommitted to developing a unified team

that is capable of playing at the highestD1 level. We’ll do this by combining thepursuit of excellence with a nurturing ofour players through Christ-centeredcoaching. It is our heart for each playerto experience the transformationalpower of God while in our programthrough an authentic community ofGrace, Truth, and Love.The players’ mission statement says,

To compete, to grow, to thrive and tobecome the woman God made me tobe.

“We almost try to scare them away,”O’Brien said. “If they get through thestatements about who we are and thecore values we promote, then that is akid who has the potential to do wellhere.”“We want players who can compete

at the highest Division I level but withthe same kind of mindset about puttingGod first. It is not about winning cham-pionships because it makes us feelgood or being named player of the yearbecause it makes us feel good. We wantto expand our platform for God.”

Elevating the Talent Level

At first, by necessity, O’Brien built theprogram around a strong defense. Hestill stresses defense, but through re-cruiting he has added more talent tobolster the offensive efforts.“What we built our program on was

defensive organization,” O’Brien said.“That was what we needed then be-cause we didn’t have flamboyant offen-sive players. We were a team that washard to score against and we haveslowly grown into a team that is playingbetter attacking soccer.“You hear defense wins champi-

onships. I believe that wholeheartedly inour sport. Even though we are a smallermid-major, it doesn’t mean that with agood tactical game plan and solid exe-cution by the players that you can’t

“Lipscomb Women’sSoccer is committed todeveloping a unifiedteam capable of playingat the highest DI level.We’ll do this by combiningthe pursuit of excellencewith a nurturing of ourplayers through Christ-centered coaching.”

–Mission Statement

A HigherPurpose

Coach O’Brien is filling his team with players equally dedicated to their faith and their sport.


have success against bigger teams.That is something we haven’t done yet,but are working towards.”O’Brien is happy with what the team

has done so far, but his next hurdle is toput a team on the field that can chal-lenge the larger schools. He has filledthe schedule for the next two years withmany challenges.“We have Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Ken-

tucky, Ole Miss and Mississippi State onour schedule,” O’Brien said. “A lot ofmid-majors shy away from playingthose types of teams but for me that isthe challenge and the next step thisprogram needs to take.”As the program has improved O’Brien

is especially proud that many of theplayers who were on the team before hearrived have played a pivotal role in thetransition. “Our senior leadership is comprised

entirely of girls I did not recruit,” O’Briensaid. “But they have been tremendousin leading our group with integrity andclass.”But for a program to get better it has

to constantly attract better players witheach class. O’Brien is confident he isdoing that.

“It has been a combination of thoseexisting players’ catching the vision andthe new players’ being more talentedwhich has enabled us to be more com-petitive,” O’Brien said. “We brought in astrong 2013 class and have stacked it

with two more talent-rich classes.That’s positive recruiting. We’ll justkeep trying to upgrade our squad annu-ally and over time we will grow in depthand overall talent.”O’Brien stresses the family atmos-

phere of the program. He admits that itis almost cliché but he knows firsthandthat not every program that claims tobe a family lives up to such billing.“We not only are bringing in better

players and better competitors but alsoplayers who are a better fit with the uni-versity,” O’Brien said. “A lot of Division Iprograms use the word ‘family’ whenthat is really not the case.“I believe we have a really cohesive

and harmonious group that cares abouteach other. And just like a family, thereare going to be feathers ruffled, but it’sthe love the players have for one an-other that wins out in the end. I thinkthat is the God factor working itself outin our team. It’s a real blessing to coacha team without any huge egos. I thinkthe genuine caring attitude we have foreach other transfers onto the field, andit is hard to quantify, but it makes usbetter in matches than our talent.”

Championships Ahead?

Like any coach, O’Brien wants to winchampionships. He points to the in-creased support for the program fromthe administration and athletic director

2014-15 Honors

A-Sun Goalkeeper of the YearAnna Buhigas

Academic All-ConferenceAnna Buhigas

First-Team All-ConferenceAnna BuhigasCarlotta FennefossJade Abarca

Second-Team All-ConferenceCarolyn SpringsteenAnna Lail

A-Sun All-Freshman TeamJade AbarcaEmily Rogers

All-Tournament TeamEmily ShulerShelby Auterhoff

Scholar-Athlete of the YearAnna Buhigas

A HigherPurpose

Philip Hutcheson as reasons to feelconfident in the future. “We are more competitive than I

thought we would be last year,” O’Briensaid. “I think we will be better this year.We should be in the mix and be compet-itive but there are no guarantees.“I hope we are able to get a champi-

onship one of these years. Player forplayer we will have the strongest teamLipscomb soccer has ever had and I amexcited about that for 2015.”

Junior Emily Shuler gets congratulations from her “sisters” after a go-ahead goal.


Meet Anna Buhigas, AtlanticSun Goalkeeper of the Year,First Team All-Conference,Academic All-Conference,

and oh yeah, Women’s SoccerScholar Athlete of the Year.

Wanting to help build a programfrom mediocrity to success isone thing. Being a key part of

such a transformation is another.When Anna Buhigas was a high

school soccer and basketball player atDublin Scioto High School in Columbus,Ohio she made a courageous decisionto play goalkeeper for the LipscombLady Bisons soccer program. She hasbeen a major reason the Lady Bisonshave turned their program around.Lipscomb capped off its best season

ever with an overall record of 10-7-2, 4-2-1 in the A-Sun, both program bests.The team broke the school record formost wins in a season (10) and mostshutouts in a season (11).“I am surprised that it has happened

so quickly for her and I am also not sur-prised,” Lady Bisons soccer coach KevinO’Brien said. “She has been able to sta-bilize a pretty unstable program thatgave up lots and lots of goals. Now weare leading the conference in shutoutsand we are pretty stingy defensively.She is a major, major part of that.“The reality is our back line does a

good job of stopping shots before theyget to Anna and she does a great job

herself. That is what you need to besuccessful – all the players on the fieldcovering for one another. When theback four gets broken through, and theywill and they do, Anna is there to savethem.”O’Brien recalls that it was tough to re-

cruit Buhigas and the fellow membersof her class because he had nothing tosell them in terms of soccer except apromise that the team was going to im-prove.“Anna was a visionary,” O’Brien said.

“She believed in herself enough and shebelieved in the way we were recruiting.She dove in head first and has helpedlead this group on the field and helpedenable this group to find the successwe have enjoyed.“The reality for her in recruiting is she

knew in this environment she couldprobably step in and be the No. 1 keeperimmediately and really help dictatewhat the future was going to look like.That is a different kind of courage. Shehad to buy into something with no endproduct. She had to have the strengthto say I am going to help this coachingstaff and help these players turn thisprogram around.”

Buhigas has a high I.Q. in the class-room and on the field. But O’Brienpoints to her competitiveness as thebiggest thing that sets her apart fromother players.“It didn’t take long once she was in

preseason as a freshman to figure outthat this kid is as much of a competitoras I have ever seen whether we are talk-ing about guys’ soccer or girls’ soccer,”O’Brien said. “She just loves to com-pete. You knew pretty quickly that shehad what it took to be successful.”Buhigas is also blessed with a knowl-

edge of the game and the physical abili-ties to make plays.“She is very, very quick, sharp and

athletic,” O’Brien said. “She is good attaking away opportunities that othergoalkeepers would never be able to do.She is very fast off her line. She cancome out and clear balls.“A player is going to turn and shoot on

her in the box and boom she is therelike lightning. All goalkeepers have tohave that edge and that toughness. Shehas those things, but her quickness andbeing so athletic are what separate her.She is not the tallest goalkeeper thatyou are going to see at the Division I


“We are leading the conference inshutouts and we are pretty stingydefensively. She is a major, majorpart of that.”

– Coach Kevin O’Brien

level, but she is able to make incrediblesaves because of her athleticism.”Buhigas, 5-foot-7, has a knack for

controlling play around her area beforetrouble can develop for her.“She has great anticipation – reading

through plays and not allowing them todevelop into anything that would hurt theteam,” O’Brien said. “She has the abilityto close players down incredibly fast.”Buhigas, who will be a junior this sea-

son, filled a large portion of her wall withawards for the 2014 season. She wasnamed A-Sun Goalkeeper of the Yearand was also First Team All-Conference.She was also named to the A-Sun Aca-demic All-Conference Team with a 4.0in Spanish Education which also earnedher Scholar Athlete of the Year inwomen’s soccer.She was part of a record-breaking

number of award winners for the pro-gram. Carlotta Fennefoss and JadeAbarca were also named A-Sun FirstTeam All-Conference. Carolyn Springsteen and Anna Lail

were picked for the Second Team.Abarca was also selected for the All-

Freshman Team along with EmilyRogers. Abarca is only the second Lip-scomb women’s soccer player to benamed to both All-Conference FirstTeam and the All-Freshman Team in thesame year.Emily Shuler and Shelby Auterhoff

earned spots on the A-Sun All-Tourna-ment Team.Buhigas plays what is arguably the

toughest position on the field. One mis-take resulting in a goal can mean thedifference between victory and defeat.“For that position, because it is such

a mental position, you have to pick yourmoments,” Buhigas said.” In a split sec-ond if I am not there and give up a goalthat was my one chance not to messup.

“It is the biggest deal for me havingconfidence. Coaches have confidence

in me.“Our back line is so good that I am not

having to do that much. That is a confi-dence booster. I know I can do this.Having that support helps a lot.”Buhigas admits that attending a pri-

vate Christian university to play soccerwas never part of her future plans, butshe was intrigued by the opportunity torevitalize a struggling program.“O.B.’s recruiting platform to me was

changing the program,” Buhigas said.“He talked about us having the ability toflip this program. I felt called to come toLipscomb and see what we could do.“Our class has been talking about

how blessed we are to be part of theturnaround. It has been awesome. Weare getting there.”She was also impressed by the sin-

cerity of the family atmosphere thatpermeates the program.“I went to a huge public high school,”

Buhigas said. “I knew when I came to

Lipscomb it would be different, but I amblessed this is the atmosphere I wentinto.“It is so much more loving. It is way

better than where my friends are play-ing college soccer. They tell me thereare a lot of cliques such as the playerswho get most of the playing time andrecognition. They also talk about a gapbetween the coaching staff and players.Our coaching staff is involved and will-ing to help and be merciful and loving. Itis really cool.”O’Brien describes Buhigas as the

model of what he wants his Lady Bisonsto be.“She is a great student and a great

soccer player,” O’Brien said. “She iscommitted to excellence in everythingshe does and she is an incredible com-petitor. We will be happy to sign a fewmore like her.”

Mark McGee is Senior Publisher and Media Relations Director.


T he 2014 Lipscomb men’s soccerteam put together the best sea-son in program history, finishing

the year 12-4-1 overall and 4-1-1 in leagueplay to capture its first-ever Atlantic SunConference regular season champi-onship. The 12 victories set the school’sall-time mark for wins in a season.But fielding the best team in the con-

ference and carrying tons of momentuminto the postseason were not enough forLipscomb to overtake a pesky, familiarfoe – the semifinal round of the A-SunChampionship. “It’s tough to say that when you only

lost four games on the season, it was atough year,” head coach Charles Morrowsaid. “For me to say it was a disappointingseason when we had such a great year onthe field is really satisfying, because I sawwhere the program was in its infancy as aNCAA member.“Now it’s such a sense of pride to see

how the program and the expectationshave grown in that time.” By winning the regular season Lip-

scomb earned the No. 1 seed and theright to host the conference tournament. On Friday November 14th Lipscomb

faced No. 4 North Florida, a team it hadbeaten in five of the previous sevenmeetings, and showed its top billing witha dominating performance from theopening kick – outshooting UNF 16-5 andcontrolling the corner kick advantage 15-0.

Being good is no longer good enoughfor the Lipscomb Bisons soccer team.Now it’s all about being the best.


But on a night that saw the tempera-tures dip into the lower 20s, the league’stop offense was equally as cold and forjust the third time all season Lipscombwas held without a goal.“That was such a goofy game and I

don’t think I have ever been part of agame like that – as a coach or as aplayer,” Morrow said. “We controlled thegame in possession, in attacking and forthe large majority of the match, we con-tained North Florida.”The Ospreys scored three first-half

goals and held on for a 3-0 victory.“When the first half was over, they had

three goals on three shots,” Morrow said.“Statistically it was a lopsided game inour favor. Soccer can be an unforgivinggame and that is what makes this sportso interesting and attractive. Any teamcan beat any team on any given day.” The loss marked the third straight sea-

son and the sixth time in the last eightyears that Lipscomb’s season ended onegame short of the conference final.“For the last six years or so, we felt that

we had a good enough team to win thetournament, but we never did,” Morrowsaid. “This season was really the first yearwe weren’t only good enough, we weresupposed to win the whole thing.“Soccer is an unforgiving sport and

with one bad game your season is over.There is such a fine line between successand failure, but I would think everyone onour team would tell you that our last

game was a failure.”Although the season ended sooner

than expected, 2014 was filled with plentyof highlights and accolades.Lipscomb placed five players on all-

conference squads, including a program-best three on the first team.Senior defender and team captain Luke

Gearin was named the A-Sun DefensivePlayer of the Year and was one of only twounanimous first team selections. Gearinfinished second in the league with eightgoals and stabilized a defense thatrecorded four shutouts and allowed just24 goals on the year.“Luke had a fantastic senior season,”

Morrow said. “He has been the best de-fensive player in our league for the lastcouple of seasons, so it was not a shockto see him get the recognition. You don’tsee many defenders involved in the of-fensive attack as much as he was. “It just shows you the type of player

Luke is. He is a do-it-all type guy that pro-vided great leadership on and off thefield. He was so deserving of every awardgiven to him.”In only three years donning the Purple

and Gold, Gearin netted 15 goals to standthird all-time in Lipscomb’s NCAA era.He was joined on the first team by

Freshman of the Year Ivan Alvarado andredshirt junior Matt Kerridge. Alvaradoscored four times from his midfield posi-tion and assisted on eight others – thesecond most helpers in the conference.

One More StepForward

One More StepForward

By Kirk Downs

Matt Kerridge


only 18 goals allowed. He finished fourthin the conference with a 1.32 goalsagainst average and landed spots on theAll-Freshman squad and Second TeamAll-Conference for his efforts.“There were so many positives from

this year that it is hard to list them all,”Morrow said. “Having so many of ourguys recognized around the conferenceshows we are only getting better.”

Knocking on the NCAA door

Losing four key seniors – Gearin, Zan-der El-Hindi, Robbie Johnson and OmarDjabi – from a championship team wouldhave most head coaches thinking rebuild,not about another championship run. ButMorrow believes he does not have to looktoo far for the talent and ability to repeatthe success of 2014 – it is already on theroster.“I hated to see our seniors go out the

way they did,” Morrow said. “We really ap-preciate the time and effort they put in.They will definitely be missed, but we feel

we have the tools and abilities this sea-son to not only replicate last year’s suc-cess, but to take that next step. “So it is a great feeling to know that we

don’t have to rebuild. We have the talentand ability - and in some areas we aregoing to be better. Those guys had an-other year of experience, so we don’t feelthere will be any kind of a drop off. Our ex-pectations are even higher than a yearago and we feel hungrier than ever be-fore.”Every team in the country enters the

season with one main goal – make theNCAA Tournament. Once you are in thefield of 48 anything can happen, you justfirst have to make it.For the Bisons, year after year they al-

ways seem to be on the verge of makingthat first trip to the Big Dance, but forwhatever reason, they have not been ableto get over the hump…yet.Morrow believes that once his team fi-

nally breaks through, NCAA Tournamentappearances will come with regularity. “We have been so close so many times

Kerridge had a breakout campaign, to-taling a team-high 17 points and 38shots. He scored seven goals, includingtwo game winners, and totaled three as-sists.“Ivan and Matt are two guys that make

our offense go,” Morrow said. “They cre-ate havoc in the midfield for opposing de-fenses and that is what you love to haveon your team. Ivan was just a freshmanand is only going to continue to get bet-ter. The sky is the limit for him.“Matt goes from not scoring as a soph-

omore to finishing second on the team ingoals and being selected to the FirstTeam All-Conference. I could not be moreproud to see him developing into a greatplayer. We are looking for him to do bigthings for us this upcoming season.”Junior Reece Holcombe had four as-

sists and scored twice from his forwardposition to earn second team honors inback-to-back seasons. Nate Davis proved to be one of the top

keepers in the A-Sun as a freshman. Hefinished 10-2-1 in net with 41 saves and

Omar Djabi Joe Kerridge, Matt Kerridge and Luke Gearin


and we have let our opportunities getaway,” Morrow said. “I don’t put a lot ofstock into saying we’ve made it to thesemifinals this many years or that we aresnake bit, because every team is its own.“I do think that once we get over the

hump, it will be something that is donepretty consistently at that point. If youlook at just program growth andprogress, you won’t see a lot of ups anddowns in what we’ve done.”With the momentum of the program,

the increase in talent and a champi-onship staff, 2015 may very well be theyear Lipscomb steps right into the na-tional spotlight. “As far as expectations for next year,

they don’t change,” Morrow said. “We ex-pect to win every game and expect to winthe conference tournament and makethe NCAA. “This season those expectations will be

very real and very attainable, and I thinkthis might be the year we get over thehump and into the NCAA tournament.”

“

”

We expect to win everygame and expect to winthe conference tourna-ment and make the

NCAA. This season those

expectations will be veryreal and very attainable,and I think this might bethe year we get over thehump and into the NCAA

tournament.

–Charles MorrowHead Coach

NSCAA All-Region

Continuing what was an already im-pressive postseason haul of honors,Gearin and Kerridge were named to theNational Soccer Coaches Association ofAmerica (NSCAA) All-Southeast RegionTeam.It is the first time two Bisons earned

All-Region honors in the same season.Gearin landed the program’s first-ever

selection to the first team, while Kerridgeearned a spot on the second team. “Having Luke and Matt make All-Region

was a huge accomplishment for our pro-gram,” Morrow said. “It shows just howgood those two guys were last season.And with players earning All-Region hon-ors for the second straight year, it tellseveryone that our program is starting tobe recognized on a national level.”The duo joins Omar Djabi (2013) and

Miguel DaSilva (2010) as the third andfourth Bisons to ever make All-Region.

Zander El-HindiCoach

Charles Morrow

“The 300” designation is reserved,within the umbrella of the National BisonClub, for all who have chosen to supportour Student-Athletes and our programsby providing $1,000 per year or more inunrestricted support.

In doing so, members of The 300serve as the foundation of LipscombUniversity Athletics programs that arestriving to excel in the classroom, incompetition, in service to our communityand exemplifying the Christian valuesupon which Lipscomb was built.

THE

300Acuff, LucianAkers, KevinAlexander, Casey and SunniAllen, Bubba and KristinAllen, Jim and LindaArmstrong, Dale and VivianAmerican Paper & TwineAtmos EnergyBagley, Mike and AnnBaker, Gary and PortiaBanks, Alan and StephanieBell, Derek and AngelaBennett, Frank and JanBennett, Pat and CynthiaBennie, Don and NancyBetts, Rick and CindyBledsoe, Craig and SandyBowers, Ricky and DebbieBradford, JohnBrandt, Stu and DotBrandt, Walt and SailBrannon, JerryBrewer, John and CarolineBrewer, WillBridges, Stephen and LoriBrosky, Gene and CamilleBrown, Greg and TeresaBrowne, Rob and TraciBrumit, ClintCameron, PatrickCarmody, Daniel and RobynCarmody, Mike and BonnieCarpenter, Jason and LeslieChaffin, Jimmy and CharlotteChambers, Greg and AmandaChase, Dean and SandyChaudoin, Jay and KimChristian, Oakley and JaniceChurch, Bryan and NatalieClausel, EddieClevenger, TommyCollins, Mark and KayeCollins, Monte and TanyaCombs, Glen and JamieConnelly, Bill and PattiCopeland, Bart and HeatherCorley, JasonCover, Jerry and SharletCraun, Bryan and TinaCraun, JuneCromwell, Brian and BelleDale, Jeff and JulieDavidson, Kirk and MelissaDavis, Hank and RobbieDean, Barry and JanetDelk, Michael and AnnetteDillingham, J.J. and AngieDortwegt, Bob and KarenDrabyn, Steve and BrittanyDraper, LassieDugan, Mike and AmoryDuncan, Mike and KayDuncan, Tom and JudyElm Hill VeterinarianElrod, Burton and LuanaEnglish, Rodney and CaroleEstep, Chad and ShellyEubanks, Buford and DotExum, Joe and VickiEzell, John and JaneneEzell, MarilynEzell, Miles and LindaEzell, Roy and Marian

Hunter, Ronnie and BarbaraHutcheson, Philip and VeraHutcheson, Robert and BethIvey, Joe and MalindaJerkins, Gary and KarenJohnson, Chip and GalaJohnson, KimJones, Brian and JenniferKing, Doug and StaceyKnott, StanLane, Andy and StephanieLangdon, PottsLeaver, Walt and CarolLowry, Randy and RhondaMankin, Andy and JenniferMankin, JeffMaples, Todd and JulieMarsh, Lee and AnnMartin, Jamon and MichelleMartin, SuzanneMason, BobMasterson, Brian and JenniferMcAlister, Don and VickieMcCarley, John and DianeMcGee, MarkMcIntosh, George and SueMcKelvey, Carl and JoyceMcMeen, AlexanderMcMeen, John and JanetMcQueen, Andy and CandiceMeyer, CarmenMick, JohnMiller, Lawton and Mary FrankMoore, Perry and DawnMoran, Houston and MelanieMorgan, Joe and RitaMorgan, Justin and KellyMorrow, Charles and BethMossack, RobNance, BettyNerren, Guy and Pat

Ezell FoundationFarris, D.J. and KellaFerguson, Ronnie and EmilyFlatt, Andy and LauraFlatt, Steve and PatsiFord, Gwynnath and RuthForehand, Jeff and KarenFrasier, Charles and MarthaFriend, John and BettyFrench, Mark and MaryGaeto, Paul and PattyGarner, LinGaskins, Joe and AngelaGaw, Mark and PatGeorge, Jeremy and HannahGoode, Garner and RachelGoodwin, George and JaniceGott, Randy and DebbieGreen, Bobby and AliceGreen, Mike and TeresaGriffith, Lynn and DianneGrogan, Eric and MelanieHall, Scott and LeanneHammond, Paul and EmilyHarris, Andrew and EmilyHarris, LynnHarston, Buddy and JulieHartman, Trey and BethHays, Keith and KimHenry, Phil and RuthHerring, Tom and Mary BethHigh, Brent and EmilyHigh, Junior and DonnaHiller PlumbingHolladay, Kolin and MistyHollman, Doy and RitaHooper, Bob and BonnieHostettler, Greg and PeggyHowell, DaveHuddleston,Jono and AmyHunter, Jeff and Jenny

Nikolaus, DorisNowers, Burt and LisaNowers, Sr., BurtO'Brien, Kevin and ShannonOgdin, BobbyO'Rourke, Kevin and NancyOsborne, David and LindaParker, Tommy and SusanPaul, John and TammyPeebles, Henry and JeanPhillips, DebPrady, Bill and LennPrice, PatPrice, Scott and AnnPride, JamiePuckett, Eddie and BeckyRaney, SteveReynolds, David and TeresaRosenblum, David and JessieRosenthal, Brandon and KateRosser, Brent and AbbyRyman, Brian and KristinSamples, Ralph and MimiSciortino, David A. & Chris AnneSeamon, Jonathan & BarbaraSemanchik, Gary and LucyShivers, Ralph and HarrietteShoun, Paul and JanetShumate, Marshall & JacquelynnSmith, Bryan and KarynSmith, Derek and KristiSmith, Mike and DianeSmitherman, John and RuthSnoddy, ChrisSolomon, David and RitaStephens, NeikaStephens, Wayne and KarenStinson, Butch and AngelaSullivan, Adam and LaurenSwang, Ron and SusanTaylor, Bill and TabethaTaylor, Richard and StaceyTenpenny, Nick and PennyTerrell, Jim and PamTerry, Josh and MandiThetford, Bill and MarthaThomas, Jim and PatraThomas, Michael and AlethaThomas, Tim and LindaThompson, Gary and BrendaThornthwaite, Wil and CarrieThweatt, John and SharonTodd, Jeff and PaulaTom Bannen ChevroletTomlinson, Daniel and CareyTomlinson, Wade and JenniferTurner, Cal and JenVance, Will T. and CarolVerble, Sid and SuzanneWalton, Jay and StephanieWard, BrianWatson, Clint and AprilWebb, John and JodiWellerding, BobWheeler, Jonathan and JenniferWheeler, LisaWhite, Ryan and KeeleyWhitefield, Mark and JenniWilleford, Josh and LoriWilliams, Ernie and JerryWright, Randy and CarolynYates, Jim and FayeYousefi, Anthony



The road to the NCAA Tournament is rarely an easy one.But for the Lipscomb Bisons their fifth appearance inthe NCAA Tournament in the history of the program

was filled with potholes, rocks and detours of formidableproportions.

“Each year is kind of different,” Lipscomb coach BrandonRosenthal said. “People don’t realize what you have to over-come. They don’t realize the nuances of a season. “I have said so many times before when you think about

what went down during the season a lot of it rested on in-jured players. We overcame quite a few injuries.The first major obstacle, and the biggest of the season, oc-

curred in only the third match of the season. Middle blockerJewell Dobson, the preseason favorite to repeat as AtlanticSun Player of the Year, sustained an injury in the second set ofwhat would be a 3-1 win over Missouri on its home court.The Lady Bisons would play on in the Tiger Invitational and win

matches over Oakland and Illinois State.They returned home with a five-match winning streak a 5-1

record. A match with Western Kentucky was the first of the sea-son at Allen Arena. All of the positive energy that appeared todrive the team after Dobson’s loss disappeared as the Hilltoppersswept the Lady Bisons with scores of 25-11, 25-20 and 25-20.“We played phenomenally that weekend at Missouri. I think that

weekend we were just running on adrenalin.“The Western Kentucky match was a good one for us to continue

to climb the ladder. It was hard. I felt like we didn’t take advantage ofthe opportunity.”Road losses to Kentucky and Xavier followed. Rosenthal left it up

to the team to get things back on track mentally.“I was wondering if we were ever going to recover from that (Dob-

son’s injury),” Rosenthal said. “The hope was we would get thingsrolling once we started conference play and that is what happened.”Rosenthal points to the trust factor as a crucial aspect of the team

regrouping.

Lauren Fordled the Bisons to the first NCAA

Tournament at-large berth in Atlantic Sun Conference history.She was also named First TeamAll-Atlantic Sun Conference,

AVCA All-South, and Capital One CoSIDA

Academic All-American.

Float Like a ButterflySting Like a Bee

Lady Bisons dodge knockout blows to earn

NCAA at-large bid


“I doubt I saidsomething to sparkthem,” Rosenthalsaid. “You trust whatyou do and trust thefact you are doing itthe right way.”The second half of

the A-Sun seasonstarted at NorthernKentucky with theLady Bisons on topwith a 7-0 record.But again an obsta-cle fell in their way.This time aroundstarting setter KaylaOstrom fell ill andwould eventuallymiss five matchesand part of another one.Sometimes, when desperation and

frustration loom over you, an unex-pected savior steps forward. Enter sen-ior setter Jordan Huston who had notstarted a match since the 2012 season.After losing a match at Northern Ken-tucky in her first start of the season, theonly loss for the Lady Bisons in confer-ence play, Huston led the team to fivestraight wins.

Rosenthal is straightforward in his as-sessment of Huston’s performance.“That was such a crucial span,”

Rosenthal said. “Without the things thatshe did we probably would not havegone to the tournament.”There were other factors to deal with

as well. Freshman Jenny Phelan, whohad played in 13 matches, sustained aseason-ending injury and played herlast match Oct. 10 against Jacksonville.

“Jenny was someone we were defi-nitely planning to use a lot but mentallyher injury was a lot like Jewell’s for theteam,” Rosenthal said, “I was wonderingare we ever going to get out of this. Ittakes a lot out of a team when someonegets hurt.”Senior outside hitter Lauren Ford was

forced to deal with an emotional seasondue to the absence of Dobson on thecourt.

Junior Brittnay EstesSecond Team All-Atlantic Sun, All-Tournament

Junior Molly Spitznagle: First Team All-Atlantic Sun

StingBeeLIKE A

“You trust what you doand trust the fact you

are doing it theright way.”

BRANDON ROSENTHALATLANTIC SUN COACH OF THE YEAR

AVCA ALL-SOUTH COACH OF THE YEAR


Sophomore Kayla OstromSecond Team All-Atlantic Sun

Senior Sophie KellermanSecond Team All-Atlantic Sun

“I think it didmake a very bigimpact,” Fordsaid. “Jewell is

one of my best friends. To see her not beable to play for a year emotionally af-fected me. “It distracted me to a degree. It was

about me realizing my best friend wasn’tgoing to be able to play any more duringthe season. It made the game less funnot having her out there with me.”Ford also was counted on to fill much

of the offensive void left by Dobson, butshe stresses it was a team effort.“It was a very big challenge,” Ford

said. “I saw it as one of our best playersis not on the floor anymore. It wasn’tnecessarily put on me. It was put on therest of the team. We said, `yes, one ofour best players is gone, but thatdoesn’t mean we are a bad team’.”Ford stressed that the team rallied

around that belief.“Jordan stepped up and other people

stepped up,” Ford said. “It was her timeto play. Brittany Thomas stepped in as afreshman and did her job. But it was theteam doing it the entire time, not justone or two people.“Brandon always says that you never

know when your name is going to becalled to come off of the bench and play.That was what it was like this season. “As a freshman Ford played in the

NCAA Regional when Lipscomb facedTexas A&M. She thinks earning the at-large bid in 2014 to face Ohio State wasthe more satisfying of the two.“We had a great preseason and then

Jewell goes down. We worked back intoit and then Jenny goes down. And thenKayla is out.“We were up and down the entire year.

We were thinking ‘is it even possible anymore that we can go to the NCAA Tour-nament?’ It was still our goal and wewere still working towards it. At times wewere thinking ‘this is crazy. What do wehave to go through to try to get there?’”The Lady Bisons won the A-Sun regu-

lar season with a 13-1 record but lost forthe second year in a row in the tourna-ment championship to Jacksonville. Butthis time around the Lady Bisons didn’tneed the automatic bid.“We were thinking this is ridiculous,”

Ford said about the loss. “It was onemore thing to overcome. Getting theNCAA bid after all of that was incredible. “I think the whole team thought it was

almost better to be the first A-Sun vol-leyball team to get an at-large bid thanwinning it outright. It made it morememorable. It gave us more respect toget an at-large bid than an automaticbid. We realized we were starting to getrecognized nationally.”Their 20–win season and an RPI rank-

ing in the 30s definitely caught the at-

tention of the NCAA Selection Commit-tee which awarded the Lady Bisons oneof 32 at-large bids.“It was satisfying in a different way,”

Rosenthal said. “We had always won-dered what would happen if we hadproblems like we did this past season.“It was not like I would have drawn it

up. I don’t want to lose the champi-onship game again, but it was definitelysatisfying since so many thought wecould not get an at-large bid.”Despite the obstacles the Lady

Bisons were honored on many levels.Rosenthal won A-Sun Coach of the Yearand was also selected by the AmericanVolleyball Coaches Association (AVCA)as the All-South Region Coach of theYear.Ford was named A-Sun First Team All-

Conference and selected for the AVCAAll-South Region Team. She was also aCapital One-CoSIDA Academic All-Amer-ica. Both Ford and Kayla Ostrom wereCoSIDA District 3 All-Academic selec-tions. Ford was a first team member andOstrom was second team.Brittnay Estes was named A-Sun Sec-

ond Team All-Conference and honorablemention All-South Region by AVCA.Estes was also a member of the A-SunAll-Tournament Team.Molly Spitznagle was a First Team All-

Conference selection. Sophie Kellermanand Ostrom were named Second TeamAll-Conference.The Lady Bisons finished the season

with a 21-9 record. They also receivedthe highest RPI final season ranking inprogram history finishing at 39. Theywere 57th best in the nation with a .700won-lost percentage and 57th in teamassists with 1,524.“We really never had a chance to

breathe all season,” Rosenthal said.“Our players had a lot to work through –the loss of teammates to injuries andthe loss of one of our best players. As acoach you can’t force it. You have toallow it to happen.“This is one of those years that I will

always remember, not for the numbernext to our name but the journey we ex-perienced together. I am very lucky to beable to come to work every day with anamazing support staff and equallyamazing student athletes who all be-lieve in our vision and everything LUVstands for.”

StingBeeLIKE A



IT HAPPENED HERE:These 10 events helped shape

300WINSSoftball Coach KristinRyman won her 300thgame Feb. 7, 2015, an 8-0no-hitter vs. IUPUI.

NCAA AT-LARGE BIDVolleyball earned the A-Sun’s first at-largebid to the NCAA Tournament. They were sentto the Lexington Regional vs. Ohio State.

A-SUN SEMIFINALSWomen’s Tennis earned their first trip to theA-Sun semifinals with a 4-0 opening roundwin over NKU on April 16, 2015.

450WINSBaseball Coach Jeff Forehand won his 450thgame May 14, 2015 atNorthern Kentucky.

20-YEAR BIRTHDAYLipscomb Softball celebrated its 20thanniversary with a sweep of UNF at DraperDiamond at Smith Stadium on April 11, 2015.

MOST WINS, DI-ERALipscomb Baseball earned 39 wins in 2015,the most in NCAA D-I history. They reachedthe NCAA Regional and ended 39-20.


A MEMORABLE YEAR2014-15 for Lipscomb Athletics

200WINSVolleyball Coach Brandon Rosenthal wonhis 200th vs. Utah Valleyin Lawrence, Kansas onAug. 30, 2014.

NCAA BIDDawson Armstrong wasLipscomb’s first golfer toqualify for the NCAAtournament.

XC DOMINATIONCross Country swept A-Sun Championshipswith Women’s (4th) and Men’s (2nd) consecutive titles on Nov. 1, 2014.

MOST WINS/YEARWomen’s Soccer earned the most wins in thehistory of the program. They ended the year10-7-2, 4-2-1 in the Atlantic Sun.

NCAA REGIONALBy winning the A-Sun Tournament at FGCULipscomb Baseball earned a bid to the NCAANashville Regional at Vanderbilt University.

Hall of Fame LossesLeft: Roy Sewell – inducted in 1994Middle: John Henderson – inducted in 1996Right: George McIntosh – inducted in 1988


Dawson

Dawson Armstrong is the firstLipscomb golfer to qualify forthe NCAA National Tournament.


Every successful sports team has thatmoment. That watershed game orseason where the blurred vision be-

comes crystal clear as the team turns thecorner toward greatness. For the Lipscombmen’s golf team, the 2014-15 campaigncould very well be that pivotal turn.Before Will Brewer took over the reins of

the program in 2012, the Bisons struggledto establish consistency in the ruggedworld of NCAA golf, especially in the south. “When I took over the program we were

ranked No. 247 and we came into last fallat No. 183,” said Brewer. “Now we’re No.99 by Golfweeek and No. 112 by Golfstatso we are right there at the top-100 rank-ing where we wanted to be. I think people are noticing. They’reseeing that there’s something going on at Lipscomb.”The ascension in the rankings started last fall when the team

opened with an eighth-place showing at the Memphis Intercolle-giate ahead of a 10th-place showing in the N.C. State WolfpackInvite. The squad then showed flashes of what would beahead in the spring when they won the nearby KennyPerry Invitational in Bowling Green.Coming in as a highly-touted freshman, Dawson

Armstrong showed why he was such a prized re-cruit for the Purple and Gold as he cruised tomedalist honors in the event. Armstrong’s showingled Lipscomb to an eight-stroke victory over hostWestern Kentucky.Lipscomb then finished out the fall slate with a third-

place finish in the Pinetree Intercollegiate in Kennesaw,Georgia and a sixth-place run in the Intercollegiate at theGrove in College Grove, Tennessee, an event that the Bisons co-hosted with Middle Tennessee. “You never know truly what you have until your players get here,”

said Brewer. “I had every indication that we had the most talentedfreshman class that we’ve ever had on campus. It was a relativelyslow start with Dawson missing the first week since he was com-peting at the U.S. Amateur. It was a bit of a whirlwind. We had acompact fall and the first couple of events we didn’t play all thatwell. It was frustrating but I tried to play those who were preparedand ready.

Freshman’s Success MirrorsGolf Program’s Drastic Gains

“Then we put it all together at the Kenny Perry andwon. We had a fairly good fall but still not what we could havehad.”

Brewer had hoped his squad could build off the fall andhit the ground running in the spring, but Mother Na-

ture had other ideas and handicapped his teamwith round after round of unfortunate weather.That did not stop the Bisons from opening thespring with a solid showing at the Jones Invi-tational hosted by Pepperdine. With confi-dence running high from the trip to California,the Purple and Gold continued excellent playwith a second-place finish at the Samford Inter-

collegiate.Another solid top-five was in the books for Lip-

scomb at the Southern Intercollegiate in Athens, Georgiawhere the Bisons placed fourth behind three teams thatwould advance to the NCAA regionals, but a storm cloud wason the horizon as the squad headed to Little Rock, Arkansasfor the First Tee Collegiate Classic.A poor first round of action put the Bisons behind in the

First Tee Collegiate Classic leading to the only tournament ofthe season where the team finished outside the top-10 withan 11th-place performance that Brewer would note as the lowpoint of the season for his group.With the challenging Liberty Spring Invitational less than

“I’m really glad I chose Lipscomb to

not only surround myself with a good college golf atmosphere, but also a good college atmosphere

in general.”

DAWSONARMSTRONG

Armstrong turned in the best roundof any golfer in the NCAA Chapel Hill Regional.


two weeks away, Brewer spent extratime with the team working on the intel-lectual challenges and thoughtprocesses of the game. The move paidoff for his squad as the team notched a4th-place finish trailing only No. 10Oklahoma, No. 19 North Carolina andhost Liberty. The event also saw thefirst glimpses that Armstrong would beable to compete among the nation’sbest as the rookie finished one strokebehind the eventual winner in the tal-ent-laden field.“We had a difficult winter but we

competed well in the later rounds atPepperdine and built some confi-dence,” said Brewer. “We had an upand down spring, and I think the lowspots like the Little Rock tournamentreally motivated the team. We reallyworked hard on the mental part ofthe game and played really well atLiberty. Dawson almost had achance to win. Competing with twotop-15 teams in the country gave useven more confidence.“That led into the conference

championship and we were poised tocompete well. If a couple of things hadgone our way, we could have finished firstor second instead of third.”The Atlantic Sun Conference champi-

onship opened with Armstrong’s cardinga first-round 67, the lowest round ever inthe league championship by a Lipscombgolfer. That led to the newcomer finishingthe event with a -1, 208 in the tourney justone stroke off the top of the leaderboardand All-Tournament honors. He was joinedon the All-Tournament team by fellowfreshman Eric Ansett, who finished in fifthas the Bisons finished in third place, thebest mark in school history.Also named a first-team All-Atlantic Sun

Conference selection, Armstrong’s surgedown the stretch would lead to anotherhistoric moment when the Brentwood na-tive would become the first Lipscombgolfer to earn a selection to the NCAA golfchampionship regionals. He was selectedto the Chapel Hill Regional, and the At-lantic Sun Freshman of the Year took the

challenge head-on, finishing tied atop theleaderboard. That set up a sudden-deathplayoff and Armstrong came up just shorton the second hole losing out on a chanceto advance to the NCAA Championship.Watching that national championship

proved to be a tough pill to swallow forArmstrong as he tuned in to the coverageon the Golf Channel.“I was watching the national champi-

onship with all of the other colleges and itmade me more mad than excited to see it,”said Armstrong. “I was disappointed towatch other people play in something thatI know I could have competed in. It hassunk in that my making it to regionals washuge in Lipscomb’s history and being ac-tually able to make that run. It’s shownthat I can compete with the best players inthe country even when I don’t have thebest golf game going in an event. It’s

helped a lot with confidence andmoving forward with having a bettervision of my goals in the future.”That’s a future that Brewer believes

Armstrong has the drive and passionto achieve.“Dawson is very talented and he is

focused on winning and performing,”said Brewer. “He’s a coach’s dream.He loves to learn and asks a lot ofquestions about how he can get better.We talk a lot about how he can improve.Quite frankly, we’ve talked too abouthow he’s not good enough yet to turnpro and play on the next level. That wasnot to discourage him but to encouragehim to keep putting the pedal to themetal and keep working hard.”Brewer does believe that Armstrong

has what it will take to compete for thenational championship and continue onat the next level in the near future.“He finished as one of the top-15 fresh-

men in the country and he’s ranked No.104 in the world amateurs, but there arethings that he can improve. His skills arereally good but when you compare themto the top 125, top 200 players in theworld, he’s not there yet. I think Ben (Pel-licani) and I have a capacity to get himthere and that’s the attraction I think ofcoming to Lipscomb. I’ve had great expe-rience in teaching and playing, and Benhas had the same.”Armstrong’s finish has brought a

greater focus on the program both inter-nally and externally that Brewer knows willbenefit the Bisons as they continue toclimb the rankings.“I’ve received a lot of letters and email

congratulating Dawson and me,” saidBrewer. “I think there’s an acute aware-ness now that wasn’t there a few yearsago. I really believe that golf can help ourLipscomb brand. It’s not a big footprintwith 10-12 players. We can go across thecountry and it’s not quite as expensive asfor some other teams. “We can compete on the highest level a

little easier than a team with a larger ros-ter. I think we have the ability in that seg-ment of golf to maybe compete nationally

Dawson Armstrong is the firstLipscomb golfer to qualify forthe NCAA National Tournament.Dawson


a little bit quicker since we only need fivegood players.”Brewer has set up the schedule for

2015-16 to hopefully move his group intocontention for an at-large berth into theNCAA tournament.“If we can excel in the majority of those

events, I think we can move into the top-60 where we need to be,” said Brewer.“We’re moving in the right direction andwe’ve improved 70-80 spots each yearand I’d love to improve another 80 spotsand put us right where we need to be. Thatwill probably slow down a bit but we’re rel-evant now. Before, it was a difficult chal-lenge to be relevant at No. 247. People arestarting to take notice, and we are gettingthe chance to play events we have neverplayed before.”Armstrong also believes that he and his

teammates can get the job done for theBisons to make it to the NCAA postseasonif they can get the consistency that theysaw at the end of the season.“Consistency is a big part of what I think

we can do next season,” said Armstrong.“One of our goals this season was to getin the top-100 which we accomplished,but another was to get in that top-64 andmake it to regionals, which sadly, we didn’tdo. Reaching one of our goals this yearshows that we have the talent and poten-tial to reach the regionals next year andhave a pretty good run at every tourna-ment we play in.”

The team’s success in just the shorttime Brewer has been at the helm of theprogram is already paying off when itcomes to recruiting the next classes ofBisons.“I’m getting a lot stronger caliber stu-

dent-athlete on paper than when I first gothere. Our intentionality of recruiting acrossthe country looking for players and havingour branding presence with things like thenew Sprinter van makes people say‘Where is Lipscomb’ or ‘Yeah, I’ve heardabout Lipscomb’. There’s a lot of chatter,so it’s a little easier for the recruits to findus.” The former NAIA national champion

hopes those new Bisons will look back ontheir first seasons and, like Armstrong, willreflect that the thing they were mostproud of during their first year was choos-ing Lipscomb.“I’m really glad I chose Lipscomb to not

only surround myself with a good collegegolf atmosphere but also a good collegeatmosphere in general,” said Armstrong.

“It’s been awesome. It kept me groundedand helped me realize that golf isn’t every-thing, which is huge. It’s helped me keepeverything in perspective, which hashelped me a lot moving forward and see-ing how I can improve in golf and life. It’sgreat having people around you that aretrying to build you up.”Brewer believes that with strong re-

cruiting and some facility improvementshis squad will be able to compete with thenation’s best. “I am reminded that we weren’t relevant

two or three years ago, and we’re becom-ing relevant,” said Brewer. “Are we goingto challenge the national champion LSUright now? No, but give us a little moretime and we could be in the top 50-60 andon any given day challenge them. “In college baseball you play a three-

game series. In a year or two if we playedthem three times, we would beat themonce and they may beat us twice. Twoyears ago they would have beaten us by 15shots a round. We still have miles to go,but we’re a little ahead of where I thoughtwe’d be. We still need to improve our fa-cilities and we need to offer more scholar-ships. On top of that we’d like to build anindoor facility at some point, maybe as ajoint venture with Nashville Golf and Ath-letic Club.”

Jamie Gilliam is Lipscomb’s Director of Athletic Communications

“He’s a coach’sdream. He loves tolearn and asks a lotof questions.”

DIRECTOR OF GOLFWILL BREWER

Freshman guard Nathan Moranhad a lifelong wish, and eventhough time was running out on

his plan, he refused to give up.Moran says he started dribbling and

shooting a basketball while still in dia-pers. The more he played, the more hisambition grew to one day take the hard-wood for an NCAA Division I team.The only problem was that his ambi-

tion might have grown, but he didn't. Injunior high he was listed on the roster at4-foot-9 as a seventh grader. A growthspurt pushed him to 5-7 his freshmanseason.

Not exactly prime height for a DivisionI basketball player who is now listed at5-9.Moran, who hails from Franklin, Ten-

nessee, was classified as a walk-on thispast season, another testament to howmuch he wanted to play Division I bas-ketball. His hard work has rewarded himwith an athletic scholarship to begin hissophomore season.The fact that he is wearing the pur-

ple-and-gold for the Bisons is a vindica-tion of sorts for Moran who refused tocall it quits on his goal."I always told my parents I was going

to play Division I basketball," Moransaid. "They kept telling me I needed tokeep talking to schools on the Division IIand III levels."Moran has been an instant hit with

fans of the Bisons. He hasn't noticedthe fan interest, but Head Coach CaseyAlexander can attest to the freshman'spopularity."He is a fan favorite and he should

be," Alexander said. "He is the little guyout there and people are going to getexcited about that. I get more com-ments about him than anybody else onthe team."

Growing PainsBIG

GAINS

Bison Basketball earned a tripto the A-Sun Tournament andwon a first-round game forthe first time since 2009


&


Moran knew he could shoot a bas-ketball, but he didn't know what chal-lenges awaited him on the D-I level. "I am definitely the smallest player

on the team," Moran said. "I know Ihave to work a lot harder. I make up formy size by playing smarter and havingmore energy."Alexander expects that fan follow-

ing to grow for Moran as his careercontinues because of the intangibleshe brings."I am not surprised that he has

come in and made a name for himselfso quickly," Alexander said. "I did ex-pect him to jump right in with bothfeet. I didn't expect, necessarily, thathe would be producing for us offen-sively the way that he is, or even de-fensively for that matter.""He has earned his playing time. I let

my players earn their keep. I am notconcerned with age or stature. He de-serves to be playing. He is a winner."Moran and the Bisons finished tied

with Northern Kentucky for fourthplace in the Atlantic Sun Conferencestandings after a 7-7 mark in leagueplay. Lipscomb traveled to take on theNorse in the opening round of the A-Sun tournament and defeated NKU76-73 in overtimeThat set up a meeting on the road at

North Florida that saw the eventual A-Sun tournament champions claim a71-57 victory to end the season forthe Purple and Gold.

– Jamie Gilliam

After finishing second in theleague in scoring, sophomoreJosh Williams was named to

the All-Atlantic Sun Conference men’sbasketball first team.“Josh was a really consistent player

for us all year,” said Lipscomb headcoach Casey Alexander. “He scored theball great all year and his percentageswere great all year. We’re excited to seehim be honored and rewarded forsomething that he’s earned.”The Jackson, Mississippi native aver-

aged 17.2 points per game overall and20.2 points per outing in league play.He also ranked among the league lead-ers in 3-point field goal percentage(4th, .400), 3-point field goals made pergame (4th, 2.3 pg) and free-throw per-centage (8th, .729).The first Lipscomb player to garner

all-conference honors since AdnanHodzic in 2011, Williams is a two-time A-Sun Player of the Week honoree thisseason and scored in double figures inall but one game this season.

I am not surprised that he has come in andmade a name for himself

so quickly.

Casey AlexanderHead Coach

“”

Josh WilliamsNamed toAll-Atlantic Sun First Team


Nathan Moran: 11 points and two assists Senior Chad Lang blocked three shots at NKU

Senior Martin Smith led the Bisons with 13 points in the thrilling 76-73 OT win.

Talbott Denny: nine points, six rebounds and big plays down the stretch.

Due to a previously-bookedState Basketball Tournament,the game was hosted in NKU’sauxiliary gym, Regents Hall.

Lipscomb’s cheerleadersbraved rain, snow and ice tosupport their team in the

hostile environment.

All-Conference performer Josh Williams: 12 points, two assists and three steals

TOURNEYTIMEThe Bisons earned a berth in the A-Sun Tournament and captured an exciting 76-73 overtime win atNorthern Kentucky. Second-round action took them to top-seeded UNF, where their season ended 71-57.

hen looking at LipscombAthletics today and all of

the jobs involved in making itrun smoothly, it is impossible to

imagine only a few people carrying outthe duties that are necessary every day. Thirty years ago this far-fetched idea

was a reality. In the mid 1980’s the Lip-scomb Athletic Department was fight-ing to fulfill all of the tasks at hand withonly a handful of workers. A few ofthese devoted workers have remainedloyal to the university for many years,and one of these is Sherry Phillips. Shewas a core staff member and part ofthe backbone of the early days of Lip-scomb Athletics. Although much of Sherry’s 34 work-

ing years at Lipscomb has been dedi-cated to Athletics, that is not where herjourney at Lipscomb began. She grewup in Hickman County and graduatedfrom high school with hopes of attend-ing a 4-year school to study education.She entered Lipscomb as a youngfreshman, never imagining this campuswould become her home. She startedworking at age 22 as a student workerin the chapel office before transitioningto admissions and housing until hernext calling came along. She worked for Jonathan Seamon in

Campus Housing, and when he decidedto make the move to Lipscomb Athlet-ics she was interested in joining him.Seamon was aware of her exceptionalwork ethic and asked her to comealong for the ride. Sherry knew therewas work to be done in Athletics and alimited number of people doing it, but

A Family Affair


Most see a job as work.Sherry Phillips saw it as a way to blend her “families,”

and she did it well.

by Lindsey Nance

she accepted the challenge and beganto handle all secretarial duties for Ath-letic Director Coach Dugan.

A career in Athletics

She and the other few workers madeup the staff during the beginning of amajor rise in Lipscomb athletics. It was1982 – the first time a Lipscomb bas-ketball team had advanced to the NAIANational tournament – and every stepof success increased the workload onthe devoted staff. The team returned inthe 1984-85 season, but fell short. Get-ting better each year, the 1985-86Bisons were unstoppable. They secureda school record 18 straight wins andpicked up the #1 rank in the nation forthe first time in school history. TheBisons were on a roll, and basketball atLipscomb was huge. After several appearances in the na-

tional tournament and a tradition of

winning, the fan base at Lipscomb sky-rocketed. The exciting success causedgames with rivals like Trevecca to besold out within a day. This basketballmadness called for workers in the Ath-letic Department to devote all of theirtime and energy to making sure thefans could support their team. Sherrytook on the job of creating and sellingthousands of tickets to give out to thefans while still juggling the duties of asecretary. She spent entire game daysselling tickets, and as soon as theywere sold out she went straight to theconcession stand to work the remain-der of the day. She did everything in herpower to be a servant to the fans,coaches, referees, and players duringthis time. The craziness continued for the Ath-

letic Department when Lipscombbrought home the NAIA National Cham-pionship in 1986. After noticing the re-curring theme of McQuiddy Gym’s fillingquickly (and fights sometimes breakingout over seats,) Sherry and others de-cided something needed to be done.They decided to explore the option ofreserving seats, an idea that caught theimmediate attention of Lipscomb fans.As soon as word leaked out, 25 peoplecamped out at Lipscomb – the day be-fore tickets were released for sale.

An ever-present smile

Sherry was a pro at handling ticketsales while always keeping a smile onher face. She single-handedly sold8,000 tickets one day for a basketball

W


game that was moved to Vanderbilt’sMemorial Gym to accommodate thecrowd. From selling tickets and running the

concession stand to catering to the ref-erees, players, and fans, Sherry Phillipsdid it all. Andy Lane, another core mem-ber from the early days, was working asthe Sports Information director whenSherry joined the Athletics team. Lanedescribes her as an “incredible worker”and said she was “loyal and willing to dowhatever was needed with a pleasantand wonderful attitude.” Through herhard work and love for her job, Sherrybecame a well-known face of the Ath-letic Department and a favorite of manyfans because of her kind heart and herwillingness to do anything to keep themhappy.Surprisingly, the workload and unend-

ing duties of that time did not pushSherry away. Rather, her best memorieswere making and selling tickets for thesold-out games during the time that thecurrent Athletic Director Philip Hutche-son was playing basketball. Sherry’s fa-vorite memories working for Lipscombwere preparing for the game days in the80’s and getting her daughters to helpher make tickets and work concessions.

A new setting

Since Athletics moved into AllenArena, Sherry could be found simply byopening the doors of the Athletic De-partment. She was the first face whenguests entered the offices and she al-ways carried a smile and an eagergreeting. Her time serving Lipscombwhile getting to spend time with herfamily is something she said she will al-ways cherish. She loved her job and allof the people she worked with whomade “work” feel like “home.”In April, instead of helping host an-

other Athletics party, Sherry enjoyedher own retirement celebration. Andathletic staff members – who numbermany more than those in Sherry’s earlydays – were able to thank her.

A Family Affair

"We often talk about Athletics beingthe front porch of Lipscomb University.What we mean is that often, people havegotten their first taste, and impression,of Lipscomb through our athletics pro-grams here. Well, if Athletics is the frontporch, then Sherry Phillips has been thefront door on the front porch, and whata great first impression she's left! I haveheard my predecessor, Steve Potts, saythat he has never heard Sherry say anunkind word about anyone. I would echothat and I would add that I've not heardan unkind word about her either. Withher welcoming spirit and friendly dispo-sition, it's no wonder that she's made somany friends among the staff, coaches,student athletes and fans, and we willcertainly miss her."

"Sherry has been one of those great‘team players’ who has encouragedthose around her, who has alwayspitched in to help with whatever mightbe going on and who has never oncesaid, 'that's not my job'.”We challenge every person who

works or plays for Lipscomb Universityto 'leave any place they've been betterthan they found it', and with Sherry, thatis certainly the case. Through herwords, her actions and her spirit, shedefinitely made Lipscomb a better placewith her presence."

FROM THE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

Sherry faithfully manned this post with a smile.

Sherry’s “real family,” which she graciously blended with her Athletics family

Sherie Eubanks, Lin Garner, Sherry and Greta Harber


When Jamie Aid took over ashead coach of the LipscombLady Bisons’ tennis team two

years ago, she didn’t seek insight fromother coaches about how to developher philosophy.She chose to use her own experiences

to model. A Nashville native, she startedher collegiate career at Samford beforereturning home to play at Lipscomb. “For the most part it comes from me

being a player,” Aid said. “As a transferstudent I knew what really worked forme and what didn’t as a student-ath-lete. So I starting thinking that if I couldmake the best of both worlds whatwould that look like? How could we havea highly recognized tennis program fo-cused around being balanced, excellingin the classroom, giving back to thecommunity, creating a family within ourprogram? “It takes a great deal of time to invest

in changing a culture. I don’t know if youwould really be able to take it fromground zero and make it something if Ididn’t love the program, if I wasn’t analum, if I didn’t play here, if I didn’t loveit. There are so many aspects to the

program you don’t see. It is more than ajob to me. It is an avid interest…an avidlove.”

Season filled with highlights

In the 2014-2015 season there wasmuch to love about the program. Aftermissing the Atlantic Sun Tournamentfor several years, the Lady Bisons quali-fied for two in a row. This time aroundthey won in the quarterfinals overNorthern Kentucky for the first time andmoved to the semifinals where they lostto North Florida.Four players – Laura Kent (First

Team), Jenny Borck (Second Team) andDeahna Welcher (Second Team) – werenamed to the All-Conference Team.Hannah Gamage was selected for theAll-Freshman Team and also earned aspot on the All-Tournament Team.Melissa Kromer was named to the Aca-demic All-Conference Team.The 13 wins, 12 in the regular season,

were the most by the women’s tennisprogram in the NCAA era.But Aid doesn’t want the program to

be defined by “firsts.” She wants suc-

cess to be something that is expectedeach season and becomes common-place.

Ready to fulfill the vision

“We want to be intentional movingforward,” Aid said. “It is not O.K. any-more to just make it to the conferencetournament. It is not O.K. to have a los-ing record. It is not O.K. to miss practicebecause you have a class. We willreschedule practice so everyone can bethere so we can create a team atmos-phere daily. We are holding them to ahigher standard on and off the court. “When I came here, there was really a

big vision of one day doing somethingspecial. That all sounds great. But un-less you really immerse yourself intothat and come up with a strategic plan,then how are you going to accomplishthe goal?”Aid’s first true recruit was Kent, who

came to Lipscomb from Kangaroo Val-ley, Australia. Kent was an A-Sun All-Freshman player in 2014 and First TeamAll-Conference this season. Aid has ex-panded her recruiting globally search-

BeenThere.DoneThat.

Tennis coach Jamie Aid is drawing on the experiences of bothher former coach and her own life to build her program.


ing for talented players who are alsoleaders and who can be depended on tocompete on the court and in the class-room.She added Gamage, from

Bournemouth, England and transferDani Kinnen, from Edinburgh, Scotland.They all joined Kromer, from Mahlberg,Germany and Lorena Djuknic from Za-greb, Croatia. Kathryn Evans, fromKnoxville, also joined the team this pastseason.“We have to bring in leaders – type A

people,” Aid said. “I don’t necessarilywant followers. I want a team of leaders.“I want someone with some creativity.

I want someone who is not afraid to putin the work to put Lipscomb tennis onthe map.”

Spanning the globe for talent

Worldwide recruiting has presentedspecial challenges. When talking withplayers from different cultures, it isnecessary to be certain they will be

happy at Lipscomb and in Nashville.“We are recruiting globally to a pri-

vate Christian school with people whocare about your grades, who care aboutyou as a person and who care aboutyour spiritual growth,” Aid said. “Are youjust going to recruit tennis players orpeople who are also going to be of greatbenefit to the university? What else dothey have to offer? We want them to bean asset to Lipscomb and our tennisfamily.”Aid wants to add more levels of suc-

cess, but she admits one of the reasonsshe had a head start was because ofthe strong foundation built by Griffith.

“Lynn Griffith had a great founda-tion,” Aid said. “I liked the integrity of theprogram and how it was built. He alwaysstressed academics. He thought therewas more to defining you than justbeing a good tennis player. Being in-volved in other things at school is not anegative as long as you are doing it wellwithin your time management. He did agood job with that.

“Those are things that have stuckwith our program – academics and bal-ancing extracurricular activities in gen-eral. He was good at balancing. I don’tthink I could have taught classes andrun two Division I programs during atransition time like he did and move theprogram forward.”

Finding a balance

Aid wants her players be able to strikea balance between academics, athleticsand having an overall satisfying andhappy college life.“We want each of our players to have

that expectation of strong academics,D-I athletics and community involve-ment without overloading them,” Aidsaid. “We ask them to work hard andwork efficiently. That is the goal ofkeeping what Lynn Griffith establishedintact.”Aid stresses to her players the impor-

tance of completing what they start inall areas of their lives.

Been There. Done That.

Jenny BorckLaura Kent Deahna Welcher


“When you commit to something, youhave to finish it,” Aid said. “Some daysare really hard. Practice may be reallyhard. Maybe they just received a reallybad grade. So how do you finish strong?What can you do on a daily basis tomove forward?“We talk with our girls a lot about that.

The wins and losses are a by-product ofthe process.”One way Aid helps her players deal

with their problems is to stress the im-portance of staying in the moment.

“When you are in chemistry class, youare not on the tennis court so you needto concentrate and make the grade,”Aid said. “When you are in tennis prac-tice or playing a match, you can’t be thesame player you were the day before.What are you going to take away fromthe day that makes you better?”That is an approach Aid, assistant

coach Oliver Strecker, strength andconditioning coach Jon Flinn and ath-letic trainer Kelsey Fergusson have allbought into as well.“We work hard every day as a staff,”

Aid said. “We ask our players to workhard, but we aren’t asking them to doanything we aren’t willing to do as astaff.”It all centers on one goal – to be the

best they can be as a team especially inconference play and in the A-Sun Tour-nament.“The season is really long,” Aid said.

“The fall season is a grind. The springseason starts in January. It can be agrind if you are not process-oriented.

“And if you don’t understand whatthat means the chance of a burnout isgreat and the girls would not be peakingcome conference time. The way ourstaff has articulated daily goals is veryimportant so our girls understand whatwe are asking of them and why. ”

Expectations high next year

A difficulty of coaching college tennisis transforming players who have spentmost of their lives playing the game asindividuals into caring teammates.“We have to show them how to move

beyond themselves and play in a self-less way,” Aid said. “They have playedfor themselves 10-plus years, and weare now asking them to play for the per-son sitting next to them.“It is all about expectations. If a bunch

of people put their minds to something,there is no limit to what can be done. Ithink Jenny Borck summed it up wellwhen she said `no one had ever ex-pected me to win this much’. Whensomeone expects little from you, that iswhen you need to be concerned.”As she heads into her third season as

head coach Aid is expecting a lot fromher players as both individuals and as ateam. Fans are turning out for matches,and there is excitement in the air at theHuston-Marsh-Griffith Tennis Center.“We want to be able to dominate our

conference eventually,” Aid said. “I thinkplaying in the conference finals nextyear is a doable task. In the next threeyears I would like us to be in the top 75nationally. I think it is feasible to haveplayers ranked.“I think it excites them that I have

those expectations. I tell them let’s do itin a fearless way, let’s create somethingspecial. That is why we work hard. Wewant more. I think we have the playersand the maturity to do it; we are veryblessed in having recruited the girlsthat are a good fit for our program anduniversity. My vision is to put Lipscombon the national map.”

Been There. Done That.

Melissa Kromer Hannah Gamage

We are holding them to a higher standard onand off the court.

Jamie AidHEAD COACH

“”


ProgressUpdate

Two large video boards and 52 new high-intensity light fixtures were installed in Allen Arena

The new lighting dramatically brightened Allen Arena and made for much-improved ESPN broadcasts.

Branding was ordered for concoursesMcQuiddy endzone pads were upgradedMcQuiddy Gym received a branding makeover

New arena lights were installed in August 2014

Tunnel covers were installed for basketball season


Lighting & Branding for Allen Arena, McQuiddy Gym

LipscombAthletics

The new basketball locker room lobby, designed by Advent Results, is a drastic upgrade for guests and athletes.

Those primarily responsible: Andy Lane, Lee Marsh, Michael Smith, Derek Smith and Philip Hutcheson

Men’s Head Basketball Coach Casey Alexander

Two displays are dedicated to NIKE and Nashville

Men’s and women’s locker rooms are branded


Help us keep improving Athletic facilities!To learn more about Lipscomb Athletics’ matching gifts program:

Andy LaneE-mail: [email protected]

Phone: (615) 966-5853

Renovation of Student-Athlete Concourse

Paige StonerFemale Freshman of the Year

Dawson ArmstrongMale Freshman of the Year

Luke GearinInternational Student Athlete of the Year

Kayla Ostrom for VolleyballThe Bison Cup

Lauren FordScholar-Athlete of the Year

Luke SyversonAssistant Coach of the Year

Kevin O’BrienHead Coach of the Year

Phillip “Pitbull” BeemanThe “Our Team” Award

Women’s Cross CountryBest Record-Breaking Performance

April TerryMatt Deery Award

Shannon O’BrienLippy Awards Coordinator


Lippy Awards HonorStudent-Athletes

The brainchild of 2014 SAAC President April Terry and driven by Shannon O’Brien, the 2015 Lippy Awards were more fun than anyone ever imagined. Complete with a “purple carpet,”

dinner and awards for outstanding teams and student-athletes, this was one awards show that exceeded its hype ... and then some.

Softball – Team of the Year, accepted by senior Gracey Aguirre

Madi TalbertFemale Athlete of the Year

Marcus EvansMaster of Ceremonies

Chris KlotzMaster of Ceremonies

Gemikal PrudeMale Athlete of the Year


“THE LIPPYS”AWARDS SUMMARY

Allen Arena • April 22, 2015

Team of the YearOutstanding Performance in Academics, Athletics, and Outreach

Softball

Scholar Athlete of the Year Highest GPA & Significant Athletic Impact

Lauren Ford, Volleyball

Female Athlete of the Year Best Female Athletic Performance of the Year

Madi Talbert, Cross Country

Male Athlete of the Year Best Male Athletic Performance of the Year

Gemikal Prude, Track and Field

Matt Deery AwardMost Inspirational & Exemplary Contribution to Our Team

April Terry, Track & Field

International Student-Athlete of the Year Best Overall Performance of an International Student

Luke Gearin, Soccer

Female Freshman of the Year Best Athletic Performance of the Freshman Class

Paige Stoner, Cross Country

Male Freshman of the YearBest Athletic Performance of the Freshman Class

Dawson Armstrong, Golf

“Our Team” AwardServing Lipscomb Athletics Above and Beyond Your Call of Duty

Phillip “Pitbull” Beeman

The Bison CupAwarded to the team most supportive of Our Team

Volleyball

“Don Meyer Head Coach of the Year” Inspirational and Exemplary Contribution to Our Team

Kevin O’Brien, Women’s Soccer

Assistant Coach of the Year Inspirational and Exemplary Contribution to Our Team

Luke Syverson, Cross Country and T&F

Best ComebackVolleyball

Special Achievement AwardSherry Phillips

for retirement after a 34-year career at Lipscomb

Best Record-Breaking PerformancesWomen’s Cross Country

4th Consecutive Atlantic Sun Championship

The James R. Byers AwardThe highest honor awarded by Lipscomb Athletics

to outstanding senior male and female student-athletesApril Terry, Track & Field

Josh Lee, Baseball

April TerryJames R. Byers Award

VolleyballBest Comeback

Philip HutchesonDirector of Athletics

Sherry PhillipsSpecial Achievement Award

Josh LeeJames R. Byers Award


MomentumLipscomb Track & Field is building on a solid foundation.

Compiled by Logan Butts

Karly HibbardWayne Newman

Gemikal PrudeMadi Talbert


Paige Stoner

Nelson Scott

Christian Freeman

Sally Larson

Barbara Lee Ball

Grayson Webber


Indoor All-Conference:Wayne Newman, 60HH *Christian Freeman, 3000m (2nd team)Christian Freeman, 5000m (2nd team)Danny Marsh, 800m (2nd team)Juan Gonzalez, 5000m (3rd team)Juan Gonzalez, 3000m (3rd team)Juan Gonzalez, Mile (3rd team)Gemikal Prude, High Jump (3rd team)Derek Peterson, Brian Gentry, Andrew Bosket, Daniel Lenart: DMR (3rd team)

Brian Gentry, Kenny Smith, Nelson Scott, Wayne Newman: 4x400 Relay (3rd team)

Sally Larson, 5000m (2nd team)Madi Talbert, 3000m (2nd team)Madi Talbert, 5000m *

Outdoor All-Conference: Juan Gonzalez, 1500m (3rd team)Alex Berry, 400m (3rd team)Danny Marsh, 800m (3rd team)Jared Wingerter, 5000m (2nd team)Christian Freeman, 5000m (2nd team)Christian Freeman, 3000m Steeplechase *Alex Berry, Danny Marsh,Kenny Smith, Brian Gentry: 4x400m Relay (3rd team)

Gemikal Prude, High Jump (2nd team)Grayson Webber, Discus Throw *Nelson Scott, Javelin *James Tamburello, Javelin (3rd team)Madi Talbert, Most Outstanding Track Performer at 2015 A-Sun Championships

Madi Talbert, 5000m *Paige Stoner, 5000m (2nd team)Sally Larson, 5000m (3rd team)Sally Larson, 10,000m (2nd team)Barbara Lee Ball, 10,000m (3rd team)Madi Talbert, 3000m Steeplechase *Paige Stoner, 3000m Steeplechase (2nd team)Annika Backlund, Pole Vault (2nd team)Karly Hibbard, Javelin *

Indoor Academic All-Conference:Barbara Lee BallSally LarsonApril TerryDan ColemanJuan GonzalezDaniel LenartWayne Newman

Outdoor Academic All-Conference: Kaitlyn LlewellynMinna FieldsBarbara Lee BallSally LarsonWayne Newman, Scholar-Athlete of the YearDan ColemanDaniel LenartCaleb Love

CoSIDA Academic All-District, Cross Country and Track & Field:Barbara Lee Ball

East Region Outdoor National Championship Prelim Qualifiers:Wayne Newman (110m High Hurdles)Madi Talbert (3000m Steeplechase, 5000m)Sally Larson (5000m)Paige Stoner (3000m Steeplechase, 5000m)Gemikal Prude (High Jump)Karly Hibbard (Javelin)

National Championship Qualifiers:Madi Talbert (3000m Steeplechase)Gemikal Prude (High Jump)

* Atlantic Sun Conference Champion

Momentum


20 years of success have convinced the Lady Bisonsthey can compete with the best.

It could have been one of those seasonseveryone involved wants to forget.

Arguably the toughest schedule in the20-year history of the program combinedwith some untimely injuries almost be-came too much for the Lipscomb LadyBisons softball team to overcome.Almost.They finished with a 31-25 record, mark-

ing the seventh season in a row with 30 ormore wins. They finished second in the At-lantic Sun regular season with a 16-8record. They advanced to the finals of theconference tournament against top-seeded USC Upstate in Fort Myers, Florida.Paige Neely and Kelly Young were

named A-Sun First Team All-Conference.Tanner Sanders and Brittany Elmore weresecond team selections. Caitlin Plocheckand Abby Fenichel were both unanimousselections for the All-Freshman Team.Gracey Aguirre, Sanders and Young werenamed to the all-tournament team.Neely, Elmore and Sanders were also

named to the A-Sun Academic All-Confer-ence Team.They faced eventual WCWS Runner-Up

Michigan twice and No. 6 Alabama once.They played one game against No. 12-rated Missouri, one against No. 19 NorthCarolina State, two against No. 22-rankedJames Madison, and one against No. 23

South Alabama. None of those gamesended in a win for the Lady Bisons.In addition they played Western Ken-

tucky, Mississippi State, and USC Upstate,three teams that also received votes in theUSA Today/NFCA Collegiate Top 25. Theysplit with Western 1-1 and finished 1-3against Upstate. They lost their only meet-ing with Mississippi State by a score of 1-0.“The thing that hurt us early in the sea-

son was not the toughness of our sched-ule but that we let some other games slipout of our hands like Oklahoma State, But-ler, UAB, North Carolina State, Fordham,Binghamton and Mississippi State. “I feel like we struggled early on because

we were not winning some of those gameswe knew we could win. When you are losingthose games on top of games againstteams like Michigan, Alabama and Mis-souri, it is going to take a toll on you. Wewere so close to breaking through in sev-eral of those games (a 1-0 loss to Missis-sippi State, a 1-0 loss to NC State in eightinnings, a 3-2 loss to Fordham in nine in-nings and an 8-7 loss to UAB). We just hada hard time finishing games early in theseason.”To add to those challenges catcher

Laura Dukes, who transferred to Lipscombfrom Middle Tennessee after leading theBlue Raiders in every offensive category,went down with a broken wrist at UABMarch 3. She would not play again untilApril 15.“Abby Fenichel stepped in and did a

tremendous job catching,” Ryman said.“The experience and confidence shegained through those games will help hernext season. She is still not where shewants to be in terms of her leadership andpresence. But she learned what the posi-tion requires of her at this level.”Right fielder Gracey Aguirre struggled

much of the season with a shoulder injurythat often limited her to designated playerduties.“When Gracey was dealing with her in-

juries, it opened an outfield spot,” Ryman

First coach Andy Lane and current coach Kristin Ryman

Former players posed at the 20th Reunion Celebration


said. “Dee Baddley, Kasey Gibson andBecca Dean had some opportunities.Kasey and Dee had the most opportunitiesto play they have had in their careers. “They were in the lineup more consis-

tently than they ever had been. It gavethem a taste of what it takes to be in thisposition every single day. They started un-derstanding why we set the bar so high.Dee got that taste in 2014 during the NCAATournament, too.”Just like those games against some of

the top teams in the country, Ryman sawsilver linings in the injuries.“Do I wish those things had happened to

Laura and Gracey?,” Ryman asked. “Ab-solutely not.“But what impresses me the most is

how much we grew as a team, how oftenwe overcame obstacles like Laura’s injury.I think our lineup would have been strongerwith her in it, but we found a way. Andthrough that process, we saw this teamgrow and mature right in front of us. That’swhat good teams do. They are alwayslearning and never settling. “

Senior leaders grow

Growth, especially among the seniors,will be what Ryman remembers the mostabout the 2015 team. In their first three At-lantic Sun series they were 5-4. They had

swept Northern Kentucky in three gamesbut lost series to Stetson and Jacksonville.It was after the second loss to Jack-

sonville on the Saturday of Easter week-end that would prove to be the turningpoint for the team.“We lost on a play at the plate at the end

of the third game in Jacksonville,” Rymansaid. “We all walked away with a bad tastein our mouths. No one thought they haddone enough. It was not how the game andseries should have ended. “We got on them pretty hard after that

game. I could tell in the huddle they weren’thappy or satisfied. Something was notright. We had a passive mentality and alack of leadership. They just needed a littledirection on how to get past it.”A meeting before practice on Monday

afternoon after the Jacksonville seriesprompted the players, especially the sen-iors, to start talking. Everyone realized thesituation was not a good one. A long busride to Nashville had allowed players plentyof time to think.“It was like, `oh, wow’. We are not in a

good situation,” Ryman said. “We met withour seniors and challenged them. Theyhad some great input. It was one of thebest meetings we have ever had with agroup of players at any point in my career.Everyone stepped up and said things thatneeded to be said. Everyone was on board.

They were ready after that practice. Youcould see the change.“After the JU series the seniors took

more of an initiative. We had told them allalong this was their team. There are somany things in this game and in life that weall want, but if we aren’t willing to do whatit takes, then it is not going to happen.There is a big difference between wantingto and being willing to.”

Ryman was always confident the sen-iors could be leaders. They were finallyready to prove her assumption was a cor-rect one.

Strong finish was crucial

At the time the Lady Bisons looked likethey were going to fail to win at least 30games for the first time since 2006. Therewas also a concern about whether or notthey were going to qualify for the AtlanticSun Tournament.From that point on the Lady Bisons had

their minds set on making the conferencetournament and to finish the season asthe highest seed possible.“Because we can” became a rallying cry. “As seniors they decided they were

going to make sure the things that neededto happen were going to happen from ac-countability, being better teammates andas seniors making sure they kept the stan-

Junior Tanner Sanders was brilliant from the circle. Lint Smith was MVP among former players on this day. Junior Brittany Elmore was a leader from the plate.


dard where we needed it to be,” Rymansaid. “I think I will remember how much thisteam grew throughout the course of theyear and how far we came. “It was neat at the end of the year play-

ing some of our best softball. That is some-thing we strive for every year. It is hard fora coach to get to that point with a teamevery year. Sometimes we peak too early.“The Lady Bisons lost twice to USC Up-

state, the top seed in the tournament. Theyclosed out the season with a loss in thechampionship game with Upstate. “Confidence was building game after

game,” Ryman said. “They wanted to playUpstate in the tournament. “We have talked a ton about how the

schedule was tough and maybe at timesthat took a toll on us. But I stand firm in thatfact it made us tougher. At the end of theseason we were in a much better spot. Wewere attacking teams more.“By the end of the season we weren’t

losing games we should have won. Wewere winning games that we wouldn’t haveearly in the season. We were finishing.Mentally, we were that much tougher.Would we have liked to have gone further?Sure. Would I have liked to have had thatexperience for our seniors to win the tour-nament and go to the NCAA Tournament?Yes. But we proved a lot to ourselves by theseason’s end.”

Because we can

In 20 years the Lipscomb program hasbeen known for its success, dating back tothe NAIA beginnings.The NCAA era took a leap in Ryman’s

fourth season as head coach. In 2008 theLady Bisons fell one game short of 30wins. In 2009 they won 39. In 2010, theyear they made their first trip to the NCAARegionals as A-Sun Champion, they won50 games, still a program high.They have won at least 30 games since

2009, the year everyone started believingthe Lady Bisons could be successful as aprogram on the Division I level.“We realized in 2009 we could be one of

the first teams at Lipscomb to go make anNCAA Tournament,” Ryman said. “We real-ized we could compete with the big nameschools. We realized we could win a con-ference championship.“The only difference between then and

now is we have done it. We have been tothe NCAA regionals twice. That brings thepressure with it to go back.”Opponents don’t underestimate the

Lady Bisons. Some teams refuse toschedule them. Ryman points to the pro-gram building a name for itself over thepast 20 years as the reason so many holdthe Lady Bisons in high esteem.“The cool thing is people know what we

can do,” Ryman said. “We are going to facea No. 1 pitcher more often. Teams are goingto give us their best. “They respect us not because of what

we did this year or last year but because ofwhat has been built over the last 20 years.It is because we can. We absolutely can.That is a simple way of saying it is not outof our reach any more.”Despite falling short of their ultimate

goal in 2015 Ryman thinks the upward mo-bility of the team despite so many obsta-cles was a prime example of the ̀ becausewe can’ attitude.

“There is nothing holding this programback from an on-the-field standpoint,”Ryman said. “We can compete talent-wiseas a mid-major with the best teams.“We have returning players who can do

it. We have incoming players with the abil-ity to do it. We have a great coaching staff.It is just a matter of piecing it all togetherevery year and going out and doing it. It’s abelief that we belong and that we haveearned it.”

Reunion guests: Breanna Thurman, Whitney Kiihnl, Caroline Mason Simpson, Mark McGee, Abby Keese, Lauren Dortwegt Wilson, Kellie Sirus


Lipscomb Softball LegendsAnnounced at the 20th ReunionCelebration • April 11, 2015

Amy BeckerRachel MattsonErin HallEmily RauschenbergerKelli DobbinsJamie GleavesKristin PeckKristen TidwellDanielle CatalanoSara MeekHeather CollinsLauren DortwegtChristen CampbellAbby KeeseKellie SirusWhitney KiihnlMollie MitchellCourtney BillingtonKelsey CartwrightAshley Anderson


Her father thinks she should be alawyer or that she should pur-sue marketing. Other family

members have told her she is too smartto pursue a career in the media. She ad-mits sometimes she envisions what itwould be like to be a doctor. She,though, prefers to be standing in front ofa camera instead of an operating table.Brianne Welch, a four-year member of

the Lipscomb softball team, is smart.No question. She finished her bache-lor’s degree in journalism and newmedia with a 4.0 average, graduatingsumma cum laude this past May.She decided in middle school that she

wanted to pursue a career in sportsmedia, and she hasn’t changed her mind.It’s a competitive career where most

start at or near the bottom and worktheir way into a role on a major network.Lipscomb softball coach Kristin Rymanis convinced that Welch has what ittakes to deal with the ups and downsand the daily grind of being a part of thesports media.“We had a conversation about having

a choice during your college career todo what other people think you shoulddo or doing what you want to do,”Ryman said. “Do you follow the careerpath other people expect of you? It iseasy to get caught up in that and startquestioning if you are doing the rightthing.“At the end of the day Brianne’s pas-

sion has always been journalism, beinga sideline reporter. She has talkedabout that for so long now. Could she dosomething else because of how intelli-

gent she is? Absolutely. But I think thepassion she has is one of the thingsthat is going to make her one of thebest in her profession.”

Ready to compete

The field of journalism, especially inthe area of sports, is highly competitive.Few get chosen. Ryman doesn’t thinkWelch will wilt from the challenge.“I think she is absolutely ready for

this,” Ryman said. “She is truly one ofthe most competitive players I haveever coached.“She has an innate ability when it

comes to working hard. It was influ-enced by the way she has grown up andthe way she was raised by her parents. Iwould also like to think we have helpedher with that along the way the last fouryears in softball.”Welch worked her way into a starting

role in the Lipscomb outfield afterstruggling to earn regular playing timeher first two seasons.“I put Brianne right up there at the top

as a blue collar player,” Ryman said. “Toearn a starting position at this level isnot easy and she knows that firsthand.When she earned her playing time, itwas a turning point for her.”The old saying is “the cream rises to

the top” and Ryman thinks Welch willfulfill that saying in her career.

“There are a lot of things, once youare out in the real world, that can eatyou alive,” Ryman said. “One of our jobsis to help prepare them for those reallife situations. There are a lot of things

out there in real life that have to beearned. No one is going to give it to you.

“I think what is really going to set Bri-anne apart professionally is her willing-ness to compete. Life is a competitionin a lot of ways. She will compete forjobs and give herself the opportunity tobe one of the best in her profession.She is the cream that will rise to the topno matter what she is doing.”

Staying the course

In middle school she decided shewanted to be a sports reporter. She hasnot wavered from that decision eventhough she has faced her share ofnaysayers.“I don’t know why I decided I wanted

to do it,” Welch said. “Since elementaryschool I have always had big dreams. Idon’t know if I am going to get there, butI am going to try.”Fifth graders at her elementary

school operated a news station for theschool. Welch likes people and she likessports. It was a natural fit for her.“I always liked being in front of peo-

ple,” Welch said. “I could not wait until Iwas in the fifth grade so I could be on it.”College football is one of her biggest

sports passions. She watched Erin An-drews, the host of FOX College Footballfor Fox Sports. She also has been im-pressed with Samantha Ponder who ispart of ESPN’s college football and bas-ketball coverage.“I am a huge college football fan, es-

pecially being from Georgia,” Welchsaid. “I saw Erin Andrews on TV and I

PreparingPrime Time

You are likely to see former softball player Brianne Welch on a

sports broadcast soon.

by Mark McGee

for


said, `I want to be able to do that.’ Shewas probably the first I saw. I also loveDancing With the Stars and she was onit. In high school kids would come to meand ask me when they were going tosee me on Dancing with the Stars.“Sam Ponder on College Gameday is

my idol. I like her values. She knows whatshe stands for and she sticks with it.”

A stellar internship

Welch spent last summer working asan intern in the sports department forWKRN-TV (Channel 2), the local ABC af-filiate. She was involved in coverage ofthe Tennessee Titans, providedNashville Sounds highlights and helpedat press conferences.“It was kind of what I thought it would

be,” Welch said. “What I learned themost is how much you do in a day forsuch a little amount of airtime. Youcover so many sports, but you only areable to use a little bit of each sport.”The work schedule was demanding at

times. But Welch liked being busy. Shewas only required to work three days aweek, but she seldom missed a chanceto be part of the reporting team.“I probably went in six days a week

and would stay until midnight,” Welchsaid. “I asked to do a lot of stuff. Theywere great in letting me do it. I took itreally seriously. It was exhausting but itwas fun.“I realized I can do this for a living. I

like being busy. It is something differentevery day. It is not just sitting at a deskand doing the same thing over and over.When I left the internship I could seemyself doing this as a career. “

Praise for her talents

Alan Griggs, chairman of the Lip-scomb communications department,worked extensively in TV news. He callsBrianne a “professor’s dream” in termsof her work ethic and talents. “I believe Brianne has a very bright fu-

ture in sports journalism,” Griggs said.“I, for one, will be happy and proud oneday when I see her reporting, hostingand/or anchoring broadcasts fromsome far-flung region of the world.”

WKRN sports director Cory Curtispraised Welch for wanting to be proac-tive in her duties as an intern. He toldher the first day that she would get outof the internship what she put into it. Heknows Welch took that advice to heartbased on how she performed.“Brianne is one of the best interns we

have had, but more important is a greatperson we still consider a friend,” Curtissaid. “Not everyone just steps in and`gets it’ during their internship. She gotit from the first day she walked in thedoor.“She has one of those personalities

where everyone wants to be her friendand it really showed when she went outin the field with our reporters. Whilemost interns are wall flowers, she wasfront and center. Even in an intimidatingenvironment like the Titans’ locker roomshe was right at home, and more impor-tant, the players treated her like shewas one of us. She has ability, workethic and personality; she’ll go far orshe’ll have to deal with me!”Audra Martin, a sportscaster at

WKRN, worked closely with Welch. Mar-tin was impressed by the way Welchwas willing to help out in whatever wasneeded whether it was helping to editvideo or holding an umbrella to keep therain off of a reporter.“Brianne understood that she could

sit back and observe, or she could learnby actually helping with the shows andbeing hands on,” Martin said. “By doingthat, she was a huge help numerous

times. If I was crunched for time, shecould edit video and write a script forme and I knew I could trust that it wasdone right. “Brianne wanted to learn every day

that she was here. She asked questionson how she could improve and tookconstructive criticism well. More impor-tantly, she took those tips and pointersand immediately put them to use. Inever felt like things were going in oneear and out the other.”Martin stressed that Welch set the

bar much higher for future interns atWKRN.“I was so impressed with how she

handled herself,” Martin said. “She wasalways professional in her demeanorand wardrobe. I could send her into theTitans locker room with the utmosttrust in her… which is very hard to find ininterns. It will be hard to find anotherone who is a great as Brianne was.”

Waiting for the call

While working in front of the camerain some capacity is her goal, Welch isnot limiting her options.“There is so much you can do,” Welch

said. “I could write. I could do broad-casts. I could produce. “I am going to take the first job I can

get, work as hard as I can like I have mywhole life and hope someone likes whatthey see. I just want someone to giveme a shot. It will be whatever Godwants…whatever His plan is for me.”

A summer internship at WKRN-TV in Nashville convinced Brianne Welch “I can do this for a living.”


From neighborhood Wiffle ball gamesto living room video games, Josh,Adam and Ben Lee are competitive

at everything they do.The exception: When wearing their Lip-

scomb purple and gold baseball uniforms.As the trio played in the Atlantic Sun

Conference tournament in May, they knewit was likely the last time they would sharetime in a baseball dugout."It was a special time," Adam said, "It was

a motivating factor. With all of us together,we wanted to lengthen the season. It wasdefinitely a time we cherished."When the Bisons played Florida Gulf

Coast in the opening-round of the tourna-ment at Fort Myers, Fla., Josh and Adamwere in the starting lineup. Ben was in uni-form, but the freshman pitcher didn't playas he was redshirted this season.Josh is the oldest. Adam is 18 months

younger. Their college baseball careers in-tersected three years ago when they wereplaying in a summer league in Peoria, Ariz.Josh had just completed his freshmanseason at Vanderbilt, but was looking totransfer to get more playing time. Adamhad already committed to Lee University.When a friend suggested to Josh that he

should consider Central Arizona CommunityCollege, he took Adam along for the visit."I had no intention of leaving Lee," Adam

said. "But Josh got into my ear. He an-noyed me; he wouldn't let it go. He just

talked about it a lot."The duo spent the 2013 season at the

Arizona school, where Josh hit .302 with20 RBIs and Adam hit .324 with 24 RBIs.After the season, however, they looked toreturn to a four-year school closer to theirFranklin home.Josh picked up the phone and called Lip-

scomb coach Jeff Forehand, who had re-cruited Josh before he picked Vanderbilt."We were looking at a couple of different

schools," Josh said. "I offered us, thebrothers, as a bargaining chip. If you signone, you get both brothers."The plan worked.Josh batted .288 in 2014 and .260 this

season. Adam batted .229 in 2014 and.296 this season, when he also hit a team-high seven home runs. But they are morethan brothers and teammates — they arealso batting coaches for one another."We know each other so well," Adam

said. "If one of us is in a bit of a batting skid,the other one knows our swing so well, wehelp each other out."Both graduated in early May with de-

grees in psychology. Josh plans to pursuea graduate degree in educational psychol-ogy, which he says will help him achieve hisgoal of becoming a college baseball coach.Adam has been accepted into Lip-

scomb's graduate school. He also has onemore year of athletic eligibility and will likelyreturn to the Bisons for one more season.

Although Josh will be gone, his youngestbrother, Ben, will be a member of the Lip-scomb pitching staff.Ben is three years younger than Adam,

four years younger than Josh. A molecularbiology major, this was the first time he'dhad the opportunity to play with his oldestbrother.During the fall season, in a practice

game, Ben had the chance to pitch againstJosh. Using his new sidearm pitching mo-tion, Ben induced his oldest brother intoflying out."He hit it hard, but I got him out," said a

smiling Ben, who admitted he took a bit ofsatisfaction in winning the battle againsthis brother.At the NCAA Nashville Regional, for per-

haps the final time, the Lee brothersshared a dugout. When the final out cameand Josh's playing career ended, it was adifficult moment for the boys. And for theircoach."All of the things I could say about them

on the field are secondary," Forehand said."These three kids are the kids you wantyour son to grow up to be. They are goodstudents, good athletes, a great family."

Reach Dave Ammenheuser at 615-259-8352

and on Twitter @NashSportsEd.

Lee Brothers Cherish Unique Season


Three-Step RecipeForehand preaches keys to success

When the conference champi-onship rings are handed out tothe Lipscomb baseball team,

head coach Jeff Forehand wants toclose the book on 2015 and beginwriting a new chapter for 2016.

“There will be no more celebrat-ing on this season once we giveout the rings,” Lipscomb headcoach Jeff Forehand said. “Wearen’t going to be like the Ten-nessee Titans and continuecelebrating 1999. We lived onthe success of 2008 for fartoo long.”

In only Forehand’s sec-ond year at the head ofthe program, the 2008Bisons made a memo-rable run through the At-lantic Sun Conferencetournament, winningthree-straight elimina-tion games to capture

their first tournament titleand an automatic berth in the

NCAA Tournament for the first timein program history.“It was such a high when we did make

that first regional so soon,” Forehandsaid. “When we succeeded so quickly,we thought we would always play in ourconference tournament and alwaysmake it to a regional. “We had the mindset that it was an

easy thing and we were going to repeatthat success every year.”

It took seven years for Lipscomb to re-peat that success.

The similarities are many between the2008 and 2015 teams.They both won the A-Sun Tournament

title and made an NCAA Tournament ap-pearance where they each faced an SECteam that went on to be the nationalrunner-up; Georgia in 2008 and Vander-bilt in 2015.The 2008 team won a then-school

record 33 games. The 2015 team brokethat record by winning 39.With comparisons being made between

the teams, Forehand wants to separatethe two by forging forward and not takinganother step back by waiting anotherseven years to repeat.“Because it is so hard to repeat, you

have to ask yourself where you go fromhere,” Forehand said. “These guys got ataste of success this season, and I thinkthey will only grow hungrier.“If we can keep all the parts of the puzzle

together that we know work, hopefully wecan keep this momentum for our programrolling. I am so excited about our future.”Forehand believes he has the winning

recipe, and he points out the first ingredi-ent is a great coaching staff.“We went down for a while, but now we

have slowly built this program back,” Fore-hand said. “The coaching staff was a key inrebuilding it. The level of knowledge thatour players gain from our coaches, whopour their hearts and soul into this game,is why we are on the upswing.”The second ingredient is the players. Over the last seven years there have

been a few highs and lots of lows for theBisons. The group of 11 seniors that fin-ished their careers in 2015 saw both endsof the spectrum, but what Forehand hasseen over the last two seasons has himconfident Lipscomb is far better off thanwhen those players first arrived on cam-pus.“The group of seniors that finished their

collegiate careers this season changedthe culture of this program,” Forehandsaid. “It wasn’t any magic potion; it was thegroup inside the locker room. “Senior Will Blalock told me: ‘My fresh-

man season we only won 18 games andnow we had only lost 18 games headinginto the regional.’ It was like a completeturnaround for a guy who had to decide tocome back for a fifth year after suffering aseason-ending injury a year ago. That is


coaches and players alike, the game hasbeen an integral part of their lives thanksto being around baseball as kids.For others, such as Forehand, baseball

provided a way to build the relationship be-tween father and son.

“Some of my first memories are goingto the ballpark with my dad when I was fiveor six and he was coaching,” Forehandsaid. “I was getting to hang around highschool- and college-aged kids who playedevery day; I thought it was pretty coolbaseball.“Whether he was coaching me or watch-

ing me play, that’s always a good memoryto have.”Forehand’s dad, Fred Forehand, is a leg-

end in Middle Tennessee for what he did asa high school baseball coach. During his29-year coaching stint Fred Forehandmade stops at East Junior High School,North High School, Madison High School,Stratford High School and MontgomeryBell Academy before being named to theTennessee Baseball Coaches AssociationHall of Fame in 1995.Living up to his dad’s legacy is some-

thing Forehand never felt he had to do, buthe credits his father’s impact in wanting tobecome a head coach himself.“Every summer was wrapped around a

team my dad was coaching,” Forehandsaid. “That led to vacations centeredaround baseball, and I believe that causedme to love the game. I wanted to follow inhis footsteps and coach the game the wayhe did.”Forehand is quick to point out one other

coach who influenced him just as much –his mother.

“My mom was a baseball junkie,” Fore-hand said. “My dad coached the team onthe field and my mom coached the team athome.”In high school Forehand was a standout

second baseman at Goodpasture Chris-tian Academy where he earned All-Cityhonors. He then went on to play his collegeball at Belmont under the legendary DaveWhitten from 1986-89.After graduating from Belmont in 1989,

Forehand began his coaching career as anassistant on his father’s staff at MBA from1990-92.Forehand got his head-coaching start at

Nashville’s Goodpasture Christian Schoolwhere in seven seasons he won threestate titles (1995, 1997, and 1999) and was

named the Tennessee State Coach of theYear in each of those three seasons. Histeam also had a runner-up finish in 1994.Coaching high school baseball was al-

ways a goal of Forehand’s, but it was neverhis dream. “I told Goodpasture when I took the job

that I wanted to be in college baseball bythe time I was 30,” Forehand said.He missed it by one year.In 2001, at the age of 31, Forehand was

hired to take over a struggling program atTrevecca Nazarene. It was a move that ul-timately led him to Lipscomb.After finishing 15-40 overall and just 3-

21 in conference play during his first sea-son with Trevecca, Forehand’s philosophyblanketed the program and returned theTrojans to their winning tradition. He ledTrevecca to four straight seasons of 35 ormore wins, including three consecutive40-plus win seasons and a career .603winning percentage.

“The opportunity Allan Smith (TNU Ath-letic Director) gave me to coach atTrevecca was huge,” Forehand said. “Itturned into probably the greatest six yearsfor my family and me. “Trevecca had actually already hired an-

other coach, but at the last minute he de-cided to turn it down, so they said let’s seeif this guy can do it.”In six seasons with the Trojans, Fore-

hand compiled a 211-142-1 record, makinghim the second winningest coach inTrevecca’s history. He earned the 2004NAIA Region XI Coach of the Year and wastwice named the TransSouth ConferenceCoach of the Year in 2004 and 2005.

the kind of heart inside our program thatmakes the culture so pure. That is what ledto this turnaround.“Being in back-to-back regionals is

going to be much harder than being in justone regional. As we lose a great seniorclass, we bring in more great players afterhaving top-flight recruiting classes inback-to-back seasons. If they can some-how grab that culture of strong relation-ships, they will have a chance to be a partof some great teams with their own iden-tities.”The third step is bursting through to the

national level.“We don’t want to stop with qualifying

for a regional,” Forehand said. “The nextstep is knocking on the door of a little placecalled Omaha. We were five wins away thisseason, so we are close, but we have tokeep getting good players and coachingthem up. We have it going pretty good.”

450 and counting

With 15 years of coaching baseball thereare many memories one would not want toremember, but for Forehand there is onehe will never forget.On May 14, 2015 Forehand picked up his

450th career win as a collegiate headcoach when the Lipscomb knocked offNorthern Kentucky 6-3.“Are you sure about that?” a smiling

Forehand asked. “I think the number ofwins just tells me how old I am getting, so Idon’t think there is any way that number iscorrect.”Senior Ian Martinez-McGraw struck out

four and allowed only two hits in six inningsof work on the mound, and freshmanMichael Gigliotti went 4-for-5 at the platewith a double, a run scored and threestolen bases.The win gave Lipscomb a then-record

tying 33rd win on the year, and it markedthe ninth consecutive road win at thattime.The Bisons went on to give NKU an A-

Sun parting gift by sweeping all threegames. Forehand picked up six more winson the season, and he will enter next yearwith an overall record of 456-418-1.

Forehand’s Path to Lipscomb

For a child, playing baseball createsmemories that last a lifetime. For many

Forehand’s father, Fred, instilled his love of baseball.


Bisons return to RegionalLosses to Vanderbilt and Radford end season at 39-20

Two years later in 2007, Lipscomb hiredForehand as its 15th coach in the history ofthe storied program.In his nine seasons donning the Purple

and Gold, Forehand is 245-276. He has ledthe Bisons to two A-Sun Tournament titles,two NCAA Tournament appearances, three30-plus win seasons, two wins over No. 1Vanderbilt, a program-best RPI ranking of70 and two top-100 recruiting classes.

“I loved my time at Trevecca,” Forehandsaid. “But I knew when this job was offered,there was no question Lipscomb waswhere I wanted to be. My dream was tocoach Division I baseball, and Lipscombgame me that opportunity.”

Hard work pays dividends

Following a campaign that featured aschool record 39 wins, a second-place fin-ish in the A-Sun, a win over No. 1 Vanderbilt,a conference tournament title and anNCAA berth, the Lipscomb baseball teamwas rewarded with plenty of league post-season honors this season.Senior shortstop Grant Massey high-

lighted the Bisons postseason haul as hewas named the A-Sun Defensive Player ofthe Year to go along with an A-Sun All-Con-ference first team selection.Senior Ian Martinez-McGraw joined

Massey on the first team while seniorsNick Andros and Jonathan Allison, juniorChucky Vazquez and freshman MichaelGigliotti and Jeffrey Passantino were votedonto the A-Sun All-Conference secondteam.The future also looks bright for Lip-

scomb as Gigliotti, Passantino and BradyPuckett were elected to the A-Sun All-Freshman team.Gigliotti and Passantino also earned

recognition nationally. They each werenamed to the Louisville Slugger FreshmanAll-American Team by Collegiate Baseball,while Gigliotti also earned a spot on theNational Collegiate Baseball Writers Asso-ciation Freshman All-American squad as asecond-team member.Lipscomb led all A-Sun teams and set a

program record with eight players earningpostseason conference honors. Masseyand Martinez-McGraw’s first-team laurelswere the first for Lipscomb since 2010when Josh Smith earned the distinction.

Michael Gigliotti: Freshman All-AmericanFreshman Brady Puckett got the start vs. Radford

Kirk Downs is Communications Assistantfor Lipscomb Athletics

A-Sun Defensive Player of the Year Grant Massey Forehand congratulates Josh Lee rounding third.


The Power of ReturnWomen’s Soccer finds beauty in El Salvador

In deciding to study the Bible and play soccer at Lip-scomb, Emily Shuler discovered there was more herethan she would ever dream. Her first year at Lip-

scomb, she went on the women’s soccer team’s inauguraltrip to El Salvador. This was the first mission trip she hadever participated in, due to always being tied up with soc-cer while growing up. This trip revealed itself to be yet an-other area in her life where God was surpassing what shecould ever imagine.“Three years ago, when we stepped foot in El Salvador

as a team for the first time, we met a woman who was 103years old, and she invited us into her house,” Emilyshared. “In that tiny little tin hut, we each prayed out loudfor this incredible woman named Matilde. For most of thepeople on that trip, it was the first time they had everprayed, or it was the first time they had ever prayed outloud. In that moment, chains fell as faith became audible.”Emily was able to further relationships that she began

with the people that she met in El Salvador, includingMatilde, as she has continued to go each year with herteam. Having just returned from another week in El Sal-vador, Emily shares that this trip was particularly special.“This year when we met up with Matilde, she invited us

in to her new home. She was no longer living in a dark anddingy tin hut but in a clean and tidy house. We stood onceagain and prayed with her, and it was a moment I willnever forget,” she says. “I can speak Spanish, but I havealways struggled to understand the elderly in El Salvadordue to different slang and native Mayan words in their vo-cabulary. However, when we were in her house this yearand we prayed over her, she prayed over us as well, and Icould clearly understand every single word she was say-ing. She was blessing us and sending us out like troopsgoing to conquer and usher in the kingdom wherever weplant our feet. She said this phrase over and over again:‘Wherever they plant their feet.’ As she prayed, the powershe accessed through the Holy Spirit allowed her to occa-sionally stomp her feet. Her words and her body were one.‘Wherever they plant their feet.’ Something in my heartbroke and my selfishness was put to death. With thecreed to bless wherever we plant our feet, I know that I willnever walk, run, climb, train, or play soccer the mindlessway I used to. Then, we washed Matilde’s feet. We kneltbefore her and as my tears fell on her feet mixing with thewater that cleaned those inspired feet…There are noteven words to describe what I felt. I just know that no onethat was there will ever be the same simply because youare never the same once you encounter the love ofChrist.”Not only was Emily’s heart changed for good through

the people she met and the experiences she had in El Sal-vador, but her teammates’ hearts were changed as well.

L I P S C O M B A T H L E T I C S S P I R I T U A L F O R M A T I O N

Many of the girls have decided to dedicate their lives to Christthrough baptism, as well as shown interest in simply knowingJesus on a deeper level. Not to mention, the team has formed anunbreakable bond through serving together. “God has used thesoccer ball to bring us relationships, to bring us to Lipscomb, andto bring us to this trip to meet the people who have brought manygirls on our team to faith or a deeper level of knowing God,” shesays. “The way that God has orchestrated our lives around a singlepassion is absolutely astounding.”

– Contributed by Erin King


The Power of ConsistencyAfter-School program at Carter Lawrence benefits athletes and kids

One major thing we have learned from short-term missiontrips is the power of presence. As our teams invest yearafter year internationally, we understand the challenge is

the same in our daily lives within the community God has us. Con-nected to the heart of presence is consistency. God has called usto GO, Make Disciples, Baptize, and Teach and this past year, wehave discovered this calling is three miles down the road.From the time our student athletes walk through the doors of

Carter Lawrence Elementary School, the kids are glued to themand our athletes the same. Whether it is piggyback rides, or play-ing a quick game of tag, you can see the walls being broken downinstantly and the “little kid” inside each student-athlete beingbrought out from the elementary students. During the after school program you can look around the gym

each week and see relationships being built. Kids sprinting, dodgeballs flying, smiles everywhere break down walls of age, gender,race, and socioeconomic status. When the walls crumble to theground, relationships are created. Whether it was learning a stu-dent’s favorite color, or learning about their family, athletes andyoung students are learning more about each other, which havecultivated deeper conversations and deeper relationships. After each program we discuss and process with Lipscomb stu-

dent athletes how their time was spent. The first question out oftheir mouths is always, “when can we come back?” We look for-ward to continuing this partnership with Carter Lawrence, growingin consistency and depth, as we encounter more opportunity tobuild relationships and step towards true discipleship.


Chris Klotz is Lipscomb Athletics’Director of Spiritual Formation



Athletics Mission Trips

BaseballDominican Republic

Women’s BasketballDominican Republic

Track & Cross CountryDominican Republic

Women’s SoccerEl Salvador

General AthleticsHonduras

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Dominican Republic

TRACK & CROSS COUNTRY: Dominican Republic TRACK & CROSS COUNTRY: Dominican Republic

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Dominican Republic BASEBALL: Dominican Republic

BASEBALL: Dominican Republic


LATE-BREAKING ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE ATLANTIC SUN CONFERENCE

Breaking News

Josh Smith Promoted to CincinnatiPITTSBURGH, Pa. - Former Lipscomb pitcher JoshSmith (’10) will make his Major League debut onTuesday, June 23. The Cincinnati Reds promoted theright-hander from the Louisville Bats (AAA).

Smith became the fourth Bison in school history tomake it to the Major Leagues joining Caleb Joseph(‘14), Rex Brothers (‘11) and Bo McLaughlin (1975).

The Margate, Florida native started large: hestruck out his first batter and stroked a hit in his firstat-bat. Smith had a brief stint in the bigs in mid-April,but never made an appearance.

He spent four seasons with the Bisons, appearingin 62 games with 50 starts. He had a career record of21-17 and a 4.69 ERA.

Track Duo Reach Junior NationalsEUGENE, Ore. – Freshmen Karly Hibbard(left) and Paige Stoner (right) competed inthe USA Outdoor Track and Field JuniorNationals in June at the University of Ore-gon’s Hayward Field.Coming off appearances in the NCAA

East Region Preliminaries in their first-everoutdoor season with Lipscomb, Stoner andHibbard fared well at the Junior Nationals.Stoner entered two events, 3000m and

5000m, finishing in the top five in both.Hibbard, the defending A-Sun champion in the javelin throw, made her best throw

on her second attempt of the competition. The 40.68m mark was good enough for13th in the event.

Atlantic SunAdds a Member

MACON, Ga. – The New Jersey Insti-tute of Technology has accepted an in-vitation from the Atlantic SunConference President’s Council to jointhe league effective July 1 with compe-tition to begin for the 2015-16 academicyear.A full member of NCAA-Division I

since 2009, the Highlanders offer 12varsity sports and bring the A-Sunmembership to eight schools for thecoming year. “Lipscomb University is looking for-

ward to welcoming the New Jersey In-stitute of Technology as the newestmember of the Atlantic Sun Confer-ence,” said Lipscomb University Presi-dent L. Randolph Lowry. “The school fitswell in our conference that is comprisedof institutions that are academicallyand athletically competitive schools.This also provides our student-athleteswho are from this part of the country anopportunity to compete closer to theirfamilies on occasion, and will give all ofour programs a new opponent to get toknow on and off the playing field. Welook forward to not only competing withthem on the athletic front but also col-laborating with them in the classroom.”Located in Newark, New Jersey, NJIT

has an enrollment of 10,646 and hasbeen recognized by U.S. News andWorld Report, Forbes and the BrookingsInstitute for its success academically.NJIT also ranked 14th among nationaluniversities on the Campus Ethnic Di-versity list.NJIT will replace Northern Kentucky,

who left the conference in June.

Massey, AndrosPicked for MLBCHICAGO - The Chicago White Sox

drafted Bison shortstop Grant Massey(left) with the seventh pick in the 26thround and the 772nd selection overall inthe 2015 Major League Baseball Draft.Massey is the 26th Bison in history tobe drafted to the Major Leagues. Itmarks the fourth-consecutive year andthe ninth in the last 10 years a Bisonhas been selected.

Senior LHP Nick Andros (right) signeda free-agent contract with the KansasCity Royals. The southpaw from TunnellHill, Illinois went 11-4 with a 3.51 ERA inhis two years at Lipscomb.

THANKS TO OUR

Corporate Partners

LIPSCOMB UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS • 1 UNIVERSITY PARK DRIVE • NASHVILLE, TN 37204 • WWW.LIPSCOMBSPORTS.COM

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Documents

2014-15 Lipscomb Athletics Annual Report