Saturday, November 20, 2010

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Battling back from two sets down, top-seeded Lipscomb won its second Atlantic Sun Volleyball Championship in as many years with a 3-2 (23-25, 22-25, 25-16, 25-22, 15-8) victory against third-seeded ETSU at FGCU’s Alico Arena on Saturday afternoon. It was only the second time in A-Sun Championship history that a team has battled back from 2-0 to win the title since 2001 and only the sixth five-set championship finale in conference history.

ETSU (26-9) jumped out in front to a 10-3 lead early in the match on a Lipscomb error, but the defending A-Sun champions battled back with a 11-4 run of their own to minimize ETSU’s lead to 16-14. The Buccaneers held the lead until back-to-back kills by Lipscomb’s all-conference first team middle hitter Alex Kelly tied the score for the first time at 22-all. The Bucs continued their strong play down the stretch and won three of the last four points to take set one.

Carrying the momentum from set one, ETSU once again bolted ahead 8-3 in the second set, but Lipscomb rallied back with five-straight points to even the score at 8-8. The two teams battled to six more ties to finally meet at 23-all, before the Bucs scored the final two points to go up 2-0 into the break.

Trailing 2-0 for the first time since 2008 in an A-Sun contest, Lipscomb came out of the locker room with renewed energy cruising to a 15-8 lead to open the third set. The Bucs battled to within five at 15-10, but would not get any closer as Lipscomb’s defense shut the Bucs down and took the set.

The Lady Bisons continued to ride the momentum in the fourth set by cruising to a 16-11 lead. ETSU did not back down though, rattling off three straight points to come within two, 16-14. The Bucs continued to fight for their first trip to the NCAA tournament, bringing their score to within one 23-22, but Lipscomb once again proved to be too much and back-to-back kills by Kelly and Player of the Year Stefine “Jake” Pease evened the match at 2-2.

ETSU was forced to call an early timeout as Lipscomb jumped in front 6-2 early in the fifth set. The Bucs then rallied three-straight points to come within one, but the Lady Bisons did not want to lose to their first conference opponent in two years. Lipscomb took its10-5 lead and didn’t look back, winning its third-conference championship since joining the A-Sun in 2003.

Kelly and Katie Rose each recorded a double-double for Lipscomb. Kelly had a match-high 20 kills and 19 digs, while Rose posted 14 kills and 13 digs. Pease had a match-high 55 assists, five kills and six digs to go along with two block assists. Kelly added four block assists of her own. Kaycee Green also posted double figure kills with 15, while teammate Stephanie Rex had 11 digs.

Freshman of the Year Megan Devine recorded a double-double for the Bucs with 17 kills and 11 digs. Erin Ryan and all-conference first team selection Alysa Long also recorded double-digit kills with 16 and 12, respectively. All-conference second team selection Whitney Cogbrun had a team-high 46 assists and a match-high five block assists.

For the game, the two teams had similar hitting percentages with ETSU holding a slight edge with .236, while Lipscomb hit .235. Lipscomb had seven aces to the Bucs three, but ETSU held a 10-7 edge in blocks.

Kelly earned Tournament MVP honors and was joined on the all-tournament team by Pease and Meghan Hinemeyer, while ETSU’s Devine and Alysa Long adorned the team for the Bucs. Alyssa Lang from Kennesaw State completed the all-tournament team.

Lipscomb (23-6), a team that has defeated each conference opponent faced in the last two years, now awaits its seed in the NCAA Tournament, which will be announced on the NCAA Selection show on Sunday, Nov. 28 at approximately 3 p.m. on ESPNews.