LAKE CHARLES, La. – The University of Central Arkansas volleyball team had one of their best nights offensively in terms of hitting percentage, but fell on the road at McNeese State Thursday night by a count of 3-1 (15-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-23).
UCA (14-13, 8-5) looked to be well on their way after completely dominating the first set with a 25-15 victory. In that set the Sugar Bears struck a sultry .447 and really kept up a pretty nice pace through the remainder of the night. Four different Sugar Bears had 10 or more kills while hitting above .350, but ultimately the scoreboard was in favor of the Cowgirls.
Freshman Alicia Dittrich paced the Sugar Bears with 16 kills while hitting an impressive .500. Jessica Nagy earned 15 kills (.387 pct.), six digs and two aces, freshman Scout Brooks pitched in 14 kills (.355 pct.) and eight digs. Taylor Hammonds landed 11 kills and hit .409. Lindsey Barron also added 13 kills in the match while hitting .270.
Sophomore setter Marissa Collins added 59 more assists to her season total to go along with seven digs. Over the last six Southland conference matches, Collins is as totaled 295 assists and is averaging 11.8 assists per set.
Defensively, Cristin Curl led the Sugar Bears with 21 digs and three aces. Beth Rogers added 10 digs and freshman Shelbee Berringer dug up eight Cowgirl attack attempts.
McNeese State (9-18, 3-9) wasn’t exactly silent on the offensive end. Aside from the first game, the Cowgirls matched UCA kill-for-kill and actually hit higher in games three and four en route to the win.
The Cowgirls were led to victory by an 18 kill, four block effort from Nicole Bowden. Rachel Cagnina hit .387 and added 13 kills while Taylor Bustamento struck for 11 kills, seven digs and two aces. Setter Becky Bekelja added a double-double for McNeese State with 46 assists and 16 digs. Meanwhile, libero Katie Kennedy led all players defensively with 22 digs.
UCA is back in action Saturday when they put first place in the east division on the line against Lamar. The Sugar Bears will enter the match with a one game lead over the Cardinals. In their first meeting this season, UCA defeated Lamar 3-1 at the Prince Center on Oct. 15. Saturday’s match from Beaumont, Texas is set to begin at 1 p.m.
