Lincoln Volleyball Set for Move to Varsity Competition

[July 18, 2018] 

The Lincoln College Women’s Volleyball team will begin practicing in less than three weeks in preparation for playing their first season as an independent member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).

Lincoln College Head Coach Mark Tippett, who is set to begin his 18th season at the helm of the Lady Lynx Volleyball program, is optimistic about his team’s outlook.

“I believe we will be able to compete well at the NAIA level,” said Tippett. “We have most of our starters returning from our 2017 roster, so we will not be a typical first-year program.”

Some key returning players for the Lady Lynx include Lincoln Community High School standout Kaylyn Hoffert, Metamora High School grad Elysa Smith and a pair of talented right-side hitters in Mattie Giese (Highland Park) and Mikayla Siebert (Dee-Mack). Hoffert and Smith both received All-Conference and All-Region honors as members of LC’s final team to compete as a junior college program in 2017.

“Moving up from junior college competition to the varsity level can be a difficult transition, but having experienced players on our roster should make it a bit smoother for us,” said Tippett.

Tippett is also pleased with the additions he was able to make to his team through transfers from other junior colleges. Setter Emma Derry will join the LC after wrapping up a very successful career at Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg and outside hitter Heather Fane comes to the team from Moraine Valley Community College.

“Heather will add much needed depth to our roster as an outside hitter,” said Tippett.

“Setting was the one position where we lost all of our retuning players to transfer after last season,” Tippett added. “Recruiting in a starting caliber setter with experience was a top priority, and I could not be happier about the player we got.”

Derry was a two-year starter for CSC and led her team to an appearance at the National Junior College Athletic Association National Championship Tournament in 2017.

Lincoln Community High School setter Morgan Lolling will also be part of the setting corps for the Lady Lynx and projects to be a counterpart to Derry in the team’s two-setter offense. Fellow freshman Madalyne Confer (Guilford) will also be in the mix as a setter for the varsity and JV teams.

According to Tippett, after addressing the team’s need for quality players at the setter position, his next goal was to develop a competitive schedule.

“Having to build a schedule from scratch is a bit of a scary situation to be in,” Tippett said. “Since we are not a member of a conference as of yet, we had no built in games, which meant a lot of emailing and networking to find matches.”

Tippett was able to fill all of his available dates and is pleased with the result. “I found that many teams at the NAIA and NCAA level were eager to set up matches with us due to our prime location in the center of the state,” he said.

LC will open up their season the weekend of August 24th /25th with a trip to Chicago to participate in a two-day event hosted by Robert Morris University (NAIA). The team’s first home match will occur the next week on Tuesday, August 28th when the Lady Lynx host Judson University (NAIA) at 7:00 PM.

In all, LC will host ten home events. One of the highlights of their home season looks to be when they will co-host a multiple team event with cross-town NAIA member school Lincoln Christian University. The event will play out at both schools September 20th through 22nd.

“Coach Goesling at LCU has been a great help to me with scheduling,” Tippett said. “I am very grateful to her for being so open and willing to work with me to get matches set up.”

In addition to co-hosting the event in September, LC and LCU will play a home-and-home series of matches. Lincoln will host LCU on October 4th and the two teams will play again at LCU on October 25th.

Tippett is looking forward to renewing the cross-town rivalry. “I have been around long enough to remember when our teams played each other regularly and how much fun matches between LC and LCU can be,” said Tippett.

Lincoln’s home finale is set for November 1st when they will host Missouri Baptist University at 6:00 PM.

The move to begin varsity competition has opened the door for the Lincoln College Volleyball program to add a junior varsity roster. The first LC JV team will have a full schedule of competition in 2018. The JV has 18 dates on its schedule and will participate in two tournaments as well as hosting several events independent of the varsity team.

[Mark Tippett
Lincoln College
Sports Information]