COLUMBIA, Mo. – The University of Central Arkansas volleyball team stepped out of conference Monday night and took on a formidable task as they traveled to the Hearnes Center to take on the Missouri Tigers. The Tigers, who are receiving votes in the AVCA Coaches’ Poll, defeated the Sugar Bears in straight sets 28-26, 25-23 and 25-10.
UCA (12-10) had a great opportunity to take each of the first two games. The Sugar Bears held a 24-23 lead in the first game but Missouri (17-7) quickly got the next two points from a kill by Katie O’Brien and then a block by Molly Kreklow and Brittney Brimmage. A Scout Brooks kill evened the score back at 25 and again at 26 but Missouri took advantage of a Sugar Bear attack error and then a kill by Lisa Henning gave Missouri the game one victory.
Set two was back and forth as it saw 14 ties and eight different lead changes. The game was actually tied late at 22 all before the Tigers took advantage of a service error, had another block and closed out the game-two victory with a kill by Whitney Little.
"I'm very disappointed right now,” said head coach David McFatrich. “ We talk often about going from good to great and had a chance to take a step in that direction tonight against 38th ranked Missouri. They are a very good team, made the top 16 in the NCAA tournament last year, and I don't want to take anything away from them, but the first two sets were ours and our mistakes are what cost us."
UCA couldn’t quite match the intensity they brought to the first two sets and were overwhelmed in the third set by the Mizzou attack.
"In the 3rd set, they dominated us serving and passing, and we didn't battle like we did the first 2 games. That must change” McFatrich said. “ Our team is upset right now and rightly so. I hope they are thinking ‘how in the world did we let those first 2 sets slip away?’. This hurts right now and it should.”
Lindsey Barron paced the Sugar Bears with an 11 kill effort while hitting a team-best .320. Jessica Nagy added a team-best 12 kills and Brooks, who was named the Southland’s offensive player of the week earlier in the day, finished with nine kills. Defensively, Cristin Curl led all players with 15 digs.
The Sugar Bears had a tough time slowing the Missouri attack evidenced by the Tigers overall hitting percentage of .340. Brimmage hit .643 and had 10 kills while Little had seven kills and swung at a mark of .545. Meanwhile, the Tiger defense dug up 49 Sugar Bear attacks, while holding UCA to a hitting percentage of just .168.
UCA will look to right tonight’s wrongs on Wednesday evening when they travel to Pine Bluff, Ark. for a non-conference match with the UAPB Golden Lions. It will be the second meeting this season between UCA and UAPB. The Sugar Bears defeated the Golden Lions 3-0 back on Oct. 4. Match time Wednesday is scheduled for 6 p.m.
"We need to remember tonight, remember how we had chances and didn't capitalize,” Mcfatrich said. “If we remember and work hard to take advantage of these situations in the future, then this loss will have a silver lining."
