Lincoln Soccer and volleyball teams gear up for Post Season Tournaments

[November 08, 2019] 

The Lincoln College Men’s Soccer and Women’s Volleyball teams have qualified for post-season play in just their second seasons as members of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Both teams competed as independent institutions this year and will take part in Association of Independent Institutions (AII) National Championship qualifying events November 15th and 16th.

The AII Men’s Soccer tournament will be held at the Grizzly Soccer Complex on the campus of Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Joining tournament host GGC will be Waldorf University (Iowa), Bellevue University (Neb.) and Lincoln College.

Semifinal matches will begin Friday, Nov. 15th with tournament No. 1 seed Georgia Gwinnett playing No. 4 seed Lincoln. No. 2 Waldorf is scheduled to face No. 3 Bellevue. The two semifinal-winning teams will move on to the championship match on Saturday, Nov. 16. The champion will represent the A.I.I. in the national NAIA tournament.

GGC enters the tournament ranked No. 23 in the latest NAIA Top 25 poll with a regular season record of 9-4-3 on the season. The Grizzlies won last year’s A.I.I. tournament title with a 2-1 victory over Bellevue. Waldorf University has won eight straight matches and enters the field with a 10-5-2 record. Two of those wins have come against Bellevue (7-9-2). Lincoln will be making its A.I.I. postseason debut behind a 9-6-1 record and victories in four of its last five matches.
 

Lincoln Head Coach Ben Massena is proud of his team’s accomplishment this season and excited to see his players perform in the post-season. “Our goal at the beginning of the year was to make the playoffs,” said Massena. “We dealt with adversity this season and showed that we deserve to be part of the NAIA. Our payers are excited about the opportunity.”

The Lincoln College Women’s Volleyball team will be hosting the A.I.I. Volleyball tournament November 15th & 16th as well. The Lady Lynx, who currently have a 23-12 record and went undefeated against all A.I.I. opponents, will be joined by Lincoln Christian University (Ill.), Fisk University (Tenn.) and Haskell Indian Nations University (Kan.) for the four-team event. Haskell won the A.I.I. Championship in 2018.

Lincoln College Head Coach Mark Tippett is optimistic about his team’s chances. “We have had a strong season and done well against each of the teams we will face in the A.I.I. tournament,” said Tippett. “I expect us to be comfortable since we are playing at home and hopefully be in front of a big crowd.”

The tournament will feature a round-robin style, best two-of-three sets format on Friday. The results of Friday’s matches will seed the semifinal matches on Saturday. The top seed will play the No. 4 seed in the first semifinal at 11:00 AM, while the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds will be in the second semifinal at 1:00 PM. The Championship match is scheduled for 3:00 PM. Both teams competing in the championship match will receive automatic bids to represent the A.I.I. in the NAIA national tournament.

For men’s soccer tournament information, visit the A.I.I. Tournament Central Page at http://www.aiisports. com/mens-soccer-championship-central  for links to livestream video and statistics.

The action from pool play matches on Friday will be livestreamed on the Lincoln College Athletics Facebook page. And Saturday’s Simi-Final and Championship matches will be broadcast on LCTV Channel 5 and webcast at http://bit.ly/2DMDx5U.

[Mark Tippett
Lincoln College
Sports Information]