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Lipscomb University

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Sophia Hudepohl
3
Winner Lipscomb Lips 9-10,6-2 ASUN
2
Austin Peay APSU 9-10,2-6 ASUN
Winner
Lipscomb Lips
9-10,6-2 ASUN
3
Final
2
Austin Peay APSU
9-10,2-6 ASUN
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 4 5 F
Lipscomb Lips 25 23 25 23 15 (3)
Austin Peay APSU 18 25 13 25 10 (2)

Game Recap: Women's Volleyball |

Volleyball Downs Governors in Five Set Fight

CLARKSVILLE – The Bisons took a trip out to Clarksville, Tenn. to face off against the Austin Peay Governors for the second time this week. Lipscomb emerged victorious from the high-octane battle with set scores of 25-18, 23-25, 25-13, 23-25, and 15-10.
 
Junior Meg Mersman put on a blocking clinic with a match high eight total blocks, including three solo blocks. The Greenback, Tenn. product also put down 12 kills in the contest for a .500 hitting percentage.
 
Outsides Courtney Jones and Caroline Stogner traded off leading the Bisons in kills throughout the match, but Jones finished with a team-high 15 kills and a .469 hitting percentage.
 
Freshman setter Sophia Hudepohl dished out a match-high 45 assists as well as collecting 11 digs, the second-most on the squad. Libero Delaney Smith picked up the most digs for the Bisons with a total of 23 digs.
 
Four Bisons totaled double-digit kills as Jones, Mersman, and Stogner were joined by Addi Pelham in the double-digit club. Pelham put down 12 kills on a .417 hitting percentage along with three block assists.
 
FROM THE BENCH – HEAD COACH BRANDON ROSENTHAL
"Austin Peay – Round Two. I think that if you take a look at this match, kind of at the end of it, I was really pleased with the battle and the grittiness of our team. I think we've made some really good changes from Wednesday. You have to continue to give credit to Austin Peay for the fight that they put up. I thought we played a much cleaner match.
 
The hard part about that is that in a couple of spots, we put ourselves in a hole and so in set two – obviously the beginning is set – and in set four – kind of the midway through the set –those holes gave just enough space for Austin Peay to take advantage of us. I thought we really fought hard to get ourselves in a position to win at the end of set two and we just kind of ran out of space. Set four was the same type of thing where we didn't take advantage of the opportunity.
 
So, at times, I love the grittiness, but I would love it if we weren't creating our own damage and having to battle through that. That being said, I think that as another week has gone by here and we've learned a little bit more about this group and what we can do, and different people are having to step up at different times.
 
You know, again, you're going to look at the stat sheet and not see the likes of Libby Steinhart, or not see much of her, but I thought that her serves and dig at the end were crucial and that's a big piece of it. I thought [Logan] Gish's serves towards the end were very, very good and I just thought our defense really settled in throughout the match. I thought that we added the pressure defensively and it served us well.

I thought Meg Mersman was a huge boost tonight with 12 kills and eight blocks. For me, we talk about Meg and something that she's continuing to work on is her hitting percentage – hitting over .400 for the match was a huge piece to the win. I think you also have to talk about Courtney Jones and how she's battled the last few matches with consistency, but tonight she came out and had a stellar match.

All in all, I thought our serve receive put us in a great position. To play a five setter and only have one serve receive error says a lot about this group. More than anything, it allows us to continue to do some good things throughout the match.

I'm just really pleased with the effort this week.  With an off weekend ahead of us, it could have been easy for us to lose sight of what was at hand and I'm so proud of the way our girls battled. Especially around a fall break, everybody leaves and you're still there working and it can be a real challenge to keep players engaged. I have to credit to the staff for some really good adjustments from Wednesday to today and even in-match making some good adjustments.

I love what the team continues to bring to the table and hopefully here in the next couple of weeks we get healthier and healthier and have all our pieces back with us for that back half of the season run. I've said it many times – the ASUN is a conference that is extremely tough right now, so anytime you can get a win it's great, and anytime you can get a road win it's even better.

So, we're going to enjoy this one for a couple days here and then get back to work. We have a couple more home matches down stretch, so we're excited about that and about what lies ahead of us for the back half of the season."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
SET 1  
SET 2
  • Caroline Stogner opened up set two with a solo block on the outside to claim the first point for Lipscomb.
  • Meg Mersman extended the blocking wall Lipscomb was building with a roof of a solo block on a quick one in the middle.
  • Courtney Jones and Berkley Mischler combined for four kills in five points to bring the Bisons back into the fight at 13-10.
  • Back-to-back kills from Sophia Hudepohl and Stogner closed the gap to 21-22.
  • A streak of kills from the Governors sent the second set to Austin Peay.
  • Both teams hit over .300 in the fourth set with the Governors just out-hitting the Bisons .360 to .357.
 
SET 3
  • The Bisons got off to a quick 9-2 start with two kills and a block from Mersman and a Hudepohl ace in the first four points.
  • Kills from Stogner and Mersman and a Mersman-Pelham block extended Lipscomb's lead to 19-8 to force Austin Peay's second timeout of the set.
  • Aces from Logan Gish and Delaney Smith pushed the score toward match point and a hitting error from the Governors sealed the third set in favor of the Bisons.
 
SET 4
  • Jones opened set four with a pair of kills in the first four points.
  • Back-to-back kills on the pins from Stogner and Pelham put the Bisons up 7-5.
  • The Governors went on a 7-0 lead to push an 11-7 lead before a trio of errors brought Lipscomb back within two.
  • Jones put down a pair of kills as the Bisons fought to find their feet to bring the squad back within four points.
  • A huge dig from Connelly Renfrow in a marathon of a point sparked Lipscomb surge to put them within two at 21-20 to force a Governors' timeout.
  • Austin Peay came out of the timeout with a kill from the middle in serve receive but a net touch and Governors hitting error brought the Bisons tied at 22-22.
  • Berkley Mischler nailed a cross-court shot on a slide to tie the teams again at 23-23 before a tool on Hudephol gave the Governors set point.
 
SET 5
  • Austin Peay took the first three points of the tie-breaker but a roll shot from Pelham to the deep line corner put the Bisons on the board.
  • Meg Mersman tooled off the block for her 10th of the night to bring the Bisons within two to 4-2.
  • Pelham's 12th kill of the night and an ace from Gish closed the gap to 5-4 before a Jones kill brought the Bisons to a tie at 6-6.
  • Libby Steinhart stepped into the match and bought the Bisons their first lead of the match (8-7) with a strong serve to put the Govs out of system.
  • Merman put down her 12th of the match to give the Bisons a 14-10 match point.
  • A bad set by the Govs' setter sealed the Bisons' 10th overall victory of the season and their sixth conference victory.

HERD NOTES
  • With 61 kills, the Bisons collected a .298 hitting percentage over five sets, their third-best hitting percentage of the season and their best in a five-set match.
  • With just 10 hitting errors on the match, Lipscomb out-swung the Governors and their .210 hitting percentage.
  • Jones logged her second-highest kill count of the season at 15 kills with a .438 hitting percentage.
  • Mersman, Pelham, and Stogner each logged 12 kills over the course of the match. Mersman tied her season-high for kills, set on Oct. 1 against Jacksonville.
  • Libero Delaney Smith collected 23 digs, leading the Bisons to a total of 63 digs on the match.
  • Freshman setter Sophia Hudepohl led the match in assists as she dished out 45 of Lipscomb's 46 assists, the eighth consecutive match in which she doled out more than 30 assists.
  • Logan Gish picked up a career-high nine digs, blowing her previous best of five out of the water.
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