Carapazza writes her name in Lipscomb soccer history books

At the end of her 2025 spring season, Lipscomb midfielder Bella Carapazza, then a sophomore, had one personal goal for her upcoming season – win MVP. By the end of her 2025 fall season, as a junior, she’d done just that… and etched her name into the Lipscomb history books as just the second women’s soccer player to be chosen as an All-American.

“The All-American was crazy. That was insane,” she said with a laugh. “That came out of nowhere. And it was even third team, and there’s four teams. That’s the best kids in the nation… it’s actually crazy. It was insane.”

“I remember my phone was blowing up, and I was just like, oh my god, this is crazy. Because I hadn’t seen it, and my teammate sent it to me, and said, ‘have you seen Instagram?’ And [when I said no] she said ‘go look at Instagram,'” Carapazza grinned. “[So] I hung up, and I saw it on my phone: All-American. And I was thinking, there’s no way. And I went and looked, and it’s girls from Stanford, Florida State, TCU and then just Lipscomb. And it was so cute, seeing Lipscomb up there. I love that for Lipscomb.”

Though being selected as an All-American is perhaps a dream in the back of every athlete’s mind, it wasn’t one Carapazza was expecting to see fulfilled. In fact, at one point in time, she wasn’t even expecting to play at Lipscomb.

“I actually had a lot of opportunities to go play at other big schools, and the Lord really humbled me in terms of you’re not as big as you think you are. In high school, I thought I was tough… So the rules have changed now, but I was getting recruited in eighth grade from Florida, Auburn, LSU, huge schools,” she said. “So eighth grade, I was getting recruited, and I was thinking oh my god, I’m some big shot. This is awesome. Ninth grade, [I was] like, I’m never going to Lipscomb.”

“And then I came to an ID camp because my parents made me, and we did this, Q&A panel, with the coaches. And it changed my life. I [thought it was] so awesome, and I wanted to be a part,” she said with a smile.

After the camp, Lipscomb offered Carapazza a spot on the team, telling her she could take some time to think about it and get back to them. But Carapazza didn’t need or want any time, agreeing right away. She laughed, recalling that she’d agreed so quickly she’d shocked the coaches.

She was the only committed incoming player to the team until July, when she was joined by now junior forward Sadie Wilkinson. “Her and I are still here together, which is funny, because we’re the longest members now,” Carapazza said.

Lipscomb is and was home for more Carapazzas than just Bella. Her older sister, Alivia, another midfielder, played with the Bisons from 2021-2024. Now her younger sister, Natalia, a defender, joined the Bisons for her freshman year in 2025. For Carapazza, that made the back-to-back championship wins all the more special.

“I was shaking. I was crying. Because winning a championship for both your sisters too, no one can say they’ve done that. That was the coolest thing,” she smiled. “I got to win a championship with Liv, okay, cool, she’s off. Okay, had a semester by myself, then came back and got to win this championship with my younger sister. That just doesn’t happen.”

Carapazza started all 22 fall 2025 games for the Bisons, taking to the field for a total of 1,792 minutes. She racked up 21 points, making seven goals and seven assists over the course of the season.

Despite playing every single game and logging so many minutes, Carapazza thinks she still could have done better.

“Personally, I don’t think I had that great of a season,” she explained. “I know myself and I know my tank. I don’t think I emptied it this year. I would have liked to see myself do better. So just knowing that I got all of that without even hitting what I feel is my 100%, it makes me feel like, okay, just wait till next year.”

Though Carapazza entered the season with a goal of winning the MVP award, at the end of the championship she walked away with far more. Carapazza racked up so many awards that she joked she felt bad for people walking through Allen Arena because she was on the tv’s so much.

By the end of the season, Carapazza had been named the ASUN Championship MVP and been nominated to the Mac Hermann Trophy Watch List. She’d also been selected for the Postseason All-ASUN First Team, the Preseason All-ASUN Team and the All-Region First Team.

In addition, she’d been selected by the United Soccer Coaches as a Midfielder to Watch, and named to Top Drawer Soccer’s Team of the Week in November and listed among its Top 100 in both the preseason and the postseason. And finally, she was chosen for the All-American third team, only the second women’s soccer player at Lipscomb to be named an All-American, and the highest team selection so far.

In fact, the only awards she hasn’t won at Lipscomb is the postseason Player of the Year Award, and the All-Academic Award. With a laugh, she admitted that she’s made those two her goal for her senior season.

Carapazza said that choosing Lipscomb was a decision she’s never regretted. Though she could have transferred to any other school with her talents, especially after her performances these past seasons, Carapazza said that wasn’t her plan.

“When [Coach O’Brien] first left, I was like, I’m out of here. I’ve gotta leave. And then I was thinking about just big picture life and soccer. I said let me sit back and let me really think on this,” she said. “And then I decided if I was gonna enter the portal, I was gonna see out all my options. Because why close myself off to one person in one program?”

After thinking about this, Carapazza eventually decided not to enter the portal, but that didn’t stop big schools from reaching out to her. Florida State, Purdue and several other big schools reached out to her, several offering her up to $100,000 to play for them.

“Obviously, I’m a college girl, it would be life changing for me,” she said. “Everybody was like, Bella, it’s for State. All my mentors and all my people were like, it’s for State. Even my parents, and parents aren’t swayed easily… And it wasn’t just like hey, come play. It was like, we’d die to have her.”

Carapazza shook her head, reflecting on how torn she’d been regarding the decision. Coming back to school after Christmas break, she began to pray, asking the Lord for guidance. She decided to start a 14-day juice cleanse, to fast.

“I just needed to saturate myself in uncertainty and just have the Lord literally speak to me… I fasted five days, and I was fasting kind of until the Lord, like, gave me like a sign. And on the day that we had a meeting with Kathleen, the new coach, the verse of the day was First Corinthians, 10:31 which is our staple verse,” she said.

“And then she tells her life story, and it’s literally verbatim my college story. Her coach left her junior year, she was the captain, she didn’t know what to do. Then her senior year was the best college year she had her life.”

Carapazza said that she kept thinking how crazy the parallels in their stories were. From there, she began thinking deeper about why she was a good soccer player, and why she loved the sport.

“I’m a good soccer player because my team believes in me, and they push me and they let me have fun,” she explained. “And if I went to go play at Florida State or Purdue or Michigan State, all these huge schools, I am basically choosing to go pro right now, because it’s very transactional.”

“And that’s not how it is here. You’re not defined by soccer. I know I’m not defined by that. Here, I have a freedom to play and a joy to play… And I feel like I would lose my love for the sport if I went [to a big school], and not want to go play pro. Here, I’m here with my sister. I got to play with my older sister. My boyfriend’s here. My family loves it here. The people I love are here, why change it?”

After listening to the new women’s soccer head coach, Kathleen Paulsen, and doing more introspection, Carapazza knew: she was staying.

“We can still accomplish what we want to accomplish. And how cool would it be to do all that while everybody’s looking at us saying, oh, but what’s Bella gonna do? How cool would it be just to stay and do it again?” She said.

“And the easiest choice in the end is leaving. Door’s open, let me go, but I feel like the hardest choice was to stay. And I feel like my parents really raised me to always make the hard choices, and if they’re hard, you know that they’re probably the right one. So I stayed, and I’m happy I did.”

She added that now, everyone in her hometown knows what Lipscomb is, though they hadn’t before. She’s even been asked to come back home and speak about Lipscomb to soccer girls in her hometown. “Everybody back home is now obsessed with Lipscomb, and it’s really put it on the map… it’s off the rails,” she grinned.

Carapazza added that one of her pet peeves was how many athletes she’s seen use Lipscomb as a jumping off point to another school. “Why can’t Lipscomb be great? Why can’t it be up there with all the other guys?” She said.

“I love the school too, and I want success for the school, not just for myself,” she said. “I have pride in Lipscomb, and I want them to go and kill everybody they play, every team… So it was just cool to show everybody that mid-majors can do the same too.”

Featured image taken by Micah Barkley.