Saturday, November 21, 2009

FORT MYERS Fla. - Lipscomb's volleyball season reached a crescendo on Saturday, sweeping FGCU, 25-22, 25-18 and 25-21, at Alico Arena to win its second Atlantic Sun Volleyball Championship and in the process, finishing unbeaten against A-Sun foes in 22 contests.

Jake Pease won her second Tournament MVP. She also won when the Lady Bisons won the title in 2007. Pease totaled 77 assists, 21 digs and hit at a .348 percentage in the two games. She joins Florida A&M’s Kim Funchess (1986-1988), Georgia State’s Sarah Jane Mungo (1989, 1991) and Georgia State’s Anna Popenko (2000, 2001) as just the fourth in A-Sun history to win multiple Tournament MVP honors.

In front of a raucous home crowd of better than 500, the hitting trio of Erin Pierce, Alex Kelly and Meghan Hinemeyer silenced the Eagle backers by collecting nine of the first 11 Lady Bisons’ points, without committing an error and they moved out to an early 11-7 lead. The Lipscomb (28-3) lead grew as wide as six on two occasions, 16-10 and 19-13, but allowed FGCU (18-13) to rally, knotting the contest at 20. Anna Wagner and Chandra Lefever each picked a pair of kills during the 7-1 run. The Lady Bisons recovered to win the set thanks to kills from Kelly and Pease and consecutive hitting errors from the Eagles.

In set two, the Bisons took advantage of a poor hitting stanza from the Eagles. FGCU committed nine errors and hit .000. Lipscomb only hit .176, but Kelly delievered three kills on seven attacks with no errors. The Lady Bisons opened the set by winning nine of the first 12 points and the lead never dipped below four the remainder of the set.

The dynamic duo of Pease and Kelly opened the final set by registering four kills out of the first six points as Lipscomb jumped out to an early 5-1 advantage. The Eagles responded by taking eight of the next 10 points to snatch a 9-7 lead. Jacqueline Cowden collected a kill and combined for consecutive blocks with Lefever to cap the rally. The Eagles’ 9-8 lead proved to be their last of the match. Lipscomb ripped off 13 of the next 18 points to take a commanding 21-14 lead. Though FGCU fought back to within three, the Lady Bisons finished their virtuoso 2009 A-Sun season in appropriate fashion. Pease assisted Kelly for the final two points of the match culminating in a second A-Sun title.

Lipscomb became the third school, since the conference went to a single-division format in 1999, to cap and undefeated regular season with a conference title (UCF in 2003 and FAU two years later). Like Lipscomb, FAU had to beat the Championship host (Belmont that year) in the title match.

Kelly and Pierce joined Pease on the All-Tournament team, the third time on the team for both Pease and Kelly. FGCU’s representation came from Lefever and Jelena Simic. Simic did not appear in Saturday’s final, or the final two sets in the Eagles’ victory against Jacksonville on Friday night. In four sets of action, she totaled 28 kills and hit .344. Belmont’s Jenny Gray completed the squad after hitting .425 with 18 kills against one error on 40 attempts.

Lipscomb will sit back and rest during the Thanksgiving week and await the NCAA selection show, set for Sunday, November 29 set to air at 3:00 p.m. on ESPNews.

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The Atlantic Sun Conference is an NCAA Division I member committed to Building Winners for Life. The A-Sun stands for achievement with integrity in both the academic and athletic arenas, with a focus on the balance between the two for our student-athletes. Headquartered in Macon, Ga., the A-Sun boasts six of the top eight media markets in the Southeast. The A-Sun includes a blend of the most prestigious and dynamic private and public institutions in the region: Belmont University, Campbell University, East Tennessee State University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Jacksonville University, Kennesaw State University, Lipscomb University, Mercer University, University of North Florida, University of South Carolina Upstate and Stetson University.