CONWAY, Ark. – After dropping the opening set in ugly fashion, the University of Central Arkansas volleyball team roared back, seemed to increase the intensity level, and took the final three sets over the Lamar Cardinals including a 25-11 victory in the fourth and final set of the night. The victory means UCA advances to take on No. 1 seed Texas State on Saturday.
“I think the intensity followed some adjustments we made. Sometimes the intensity doesn’t come first,” said UCA head coach David McFatrich. “They [Lamar] played a great first game and were hitting on all cylinders. We made a couple of adjustments to their attack and serve and once we got some stops our intensity rose.”
UCA used a very balanced attack this evening to pull out the win. Three different players finished with 10 or more kills and Taylor Hammonds added another eight en route to the win. Freshman Scout Brooks led the way with 15 kills, Jessica Nagy added 14 and Alicia Dittrich pitched in 10 kills.
“We got pretty good production distribution tonight,” said McFatrich. “Normally it’s one or two players that carry us, but today I felt like we had four attackers that did really well. It was great production from four players and we need that type of distribution.”
For the match, the Sugar Bears out-hit the Cardinals .224 to .175. UCA converted just .067 percent of their attacks in the first set but finished with marks of .282, .243 and .286 in the final three sets. Meanwhile, Lamar’s hitting effort saw a very opposite trend. The Cardinals struck for a .333 hitting percentage in the first set before dipping to .281, .205 and -.107 the rest of the way.
“I thought we had all the momentum after Game 1 and 2, but then we just slowly let it get away from us in the third,” said Lamar head coach Justin Gilbert. “There was a point we had three service errors in a row and after that, we just didn’t fight hard enough for it.”
Fighting hard didn’t appear to be an issue for the Sugar Bears and the effort seemed to be led by senior libero Cristin Curl who was sacrificing her body all over the floor to dig up many Lamar attacks. Curl finished with 15 digs and two service aces in the match.
“Players like Curl are rare and UCA staff, faculty and fans have been able to enjoy her for four years,” McFatrich said. “We’ve been blessed to have her around. No one has a bigger heart than Curl and that was evident tonight.”
Marissa Collins, who was named to the All-Southland Conference Second Team this past week, gave a double-double effort with a game-high 43 assists and 10 digs. Shelbee Berringer also reached 10-plus digs, finishing with 13.
Lamar was paced by a double-double from setter Alex Morford. She finished with 36 assists and 13 digs. Wendy Krell earned 15 kills while hitting .303 and Megan Schwartz added 18 digs.
Tomorrow evening, UCA will attempt to advance to Sunday’s final when they square off with Texas State at 7:30 p.m inside the Farris Center. The Sugar Bears have met the Bobcats one time this season, a 3-1 loss on Oct. 22 in San Marcos, Texas. Texas State defeated Northwestern State 3-1 in first round action.
“We’re looking forward to the match tomorrow,” McFatrich said. “Texas State is very good, very well coached—they are good at a lot of positions but we’re excited to play and we’re looking forward to it. “
