CONWAY, Ark. – Sophomore Kyle Hartman had a career-high 10 kills and Jessica Nagy followed up her Thursday performance with another strong outing as the University of Central Arkansas volleyball team earned a 25-23, 25-18 25-16 sweep over Southeastern Louisiana Friday night.
“As a team we were pretty well at times but were a bit sketchy at times,” said head coach David McFatrich. “We’ll take a 3-0 win on the road any time though.”
On the evening, Hartman finished with a hitting percentage of .276, including a mark of .333 in the opening set. Nagy picked up her first double-double of the 2011 campaign, finishing with a team-high 12 kills to go along with 10 digs.
UCA (8-8, 4-1) was able to out-hit SE Louisiana (4-17, 0-4) .260 to .148 while having a 65-64 edge in digs, a 5-4 advantage in blocks and a 4-2 service ace advantage.
The Sugar Bears had struggled just 24 hours earlier connecting with their middle, but tonight Taylor Hammonds returned to form and had 10 kills and hit a match-best .389.
Senior Laruen Dear, filling in for the injured Marissa Collins for the second consecutive match, had yet another strong outing for the Sugar Bears. The Conway native finished with 40 assists, eight digs and three kills. The senior setter now has 84 assist in the last two nights. Coming into the 2011 season, she had recorded just 71 assists.
Defensively, Cristin Curl finished her strong conference weekend with a 20 dig performance in the victory. The preseason All-Southland selection had 32 digs Thursday in a 3-0 win over Nicholls, giving her an average of 8.67 digs/set over the last two nights. Freshman defensive specialist Shelbee Berringer also added 10 kills in the contest.
The Lions were led by Pagie Dollison’s 10 kill, six dig performance. Lindsey Young added 30 assists in the contest and Megan McMillin led SE Louisiana defensively with 20 digs.
The Sugar Bears return to action next Tuesday as they square off with UAPB at 6 p.m. UCA, who has spent six straight weeks on the road, will look to extend their 30-match win streak at the Prince Center, second only to Cincinnati’s current home winning streak of 42 matches.
“I can’t tell you how excited the players, the staff and I are to get back to the house of purple,” said McFatrich. “We are one road weary team.”
