Corpus Christi, Texas – The top-seeded Central Arkansas Sugar Bears faced off with the fifth-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders at the Dugan Wellness Center in the second round of the Southland Conference Tournament this afternoon. Central Arkansas showed why it won the SLC regular season championship, taking down a determined and talented AMCC squad in four sets to advance to tomorrow's championship match.

Central Arkansas (28-3, 18-0 SLC) hit an outstanding .324 on the day, while holding the Islanders to a percentage of .176. Central Arkansas won the first set 25-13, before AMCC rebounded to take the second 27-25. The Sugar Bears struck back in the third, earning a hard-fought 25-22 victory, before wrapping the match up with a 25-11 win in the fourth set.

Heather Schnars had another huge game for the Sugar Bears, turning in a career-best 21 kills to go with 14 digs, two blocks, and two aces. Central Arkansas also got double-digit kills from Scout Brooks (13) and Jessica Nagy (10), while Marissa Collins doled out a match-high 56 assists. Defensively, the Sugar Bears got double-digit digs from four players. Shelbee Berringer had a match-high 19, Schnars had 14, Beth Rogers had 11, and Collins picked up her second double-double of the tournament with 10 digs. Central Arkansas got three blocks from Fulani Petties and Paige Gantar.



Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (20-12, 13-5 SLC) was led by Ashley Phelps' 16 kills, and Ivy Baresh had 13 kills and nine digs. Logen Bourque collected 42 assists for the Islanders, while Shayla Maldonado had a team-high 16 digs and Bourque had 13. Shaquinn Parker had a match-high four blocks.



Central Arkansas will face off against second-seeded Northwestern State in tomorrow's Southland Conference Tournament Championship match, which is scheduled to begin at 2:05 tomorrow afternoon.