Conway – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears will begin their quest for their third-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance on Friday. Over the past two season, Central Arkansas has compiled a record of 59-9, which ranks as the second-best in all of Division I. Starting Friday though, the Sugar Bears shift their from the successes of the past to the goal for this season. Central Arkansas will look to blend the experience of the past two seasons with a group of newcomers to win their third straight Southland Conference tournament title.

The Sugar Bears will be looking to replace the contributions of a six-player senior class, and will attempt to do so by looking for increased contributions from experienced players, as well as expecting new contributions from a group of four freshmen. Leading the way for Central Arkansas is junior outside hitter Heather Schnars, a 2013 All-SLC first team selection and a member of this seasons All-SLC preseason team. Last season, Schnars led the SLC in service aces (54), finished third in kills (383), fourth in kills per set (3.51), 11^th in hitting percentage (.269), and ranked ninth nationally in aces per set (.50). "I thought that Heather was one of the best outside hitters in the league last year, and I think she was rewarded for that with a first team All-SLC nod," said UCA head coach David McFatrich.

The Sugar Bears also return All-SLC preseason honoress Shelbee Berringer, Alicia Dittrich and Fulani Petties. Berrenger, a libero from Dickinson, Texas, led the team and ranked third in the SLC in digs (559) and 45^th nationally in in digs per set (4.86),while Dittrich, a middle blocker from Houston, Texas, finished second in the conference in hitting percentage (.327) She averaged 1.38 kills per set and 0.57 blocks per set. "Alicia is a former first team All-Conference player," said McFatrich. "I'm putting a lot of stock in her this year." Of Berringer, McFatrich said, "I think Shelbee is the best libero in the conference. I'm not trying to slight anyone else; there are definitely some good liberoes in the SLC. Shelbee doesn't get the accolades, because her digs per game number isn't as high, but she also had less opportunities for digs. It's a huge comfort for me to know that I've got her on our back line, because she is just a great volleyball player. I've had her for three years, and in that period, I can recall her having one bad match. That's the kind of consistency that coaches look for because you like to know what you're going to get, and I always know what I'm going to get from Shelbee."
Petties, a sophomore middle blocker from Whitehouse, Texas, finished second in the SLC in hitting percentage last season (.327) while averaging 1.38 kills per set and 0.57 blocks per set. "We're expecting some really big things from Foo this year," said McFatrich.

The biggest change for Central Arkansas this season will be at the setter positon, where Amy South will look to replace three-time SLC Setter of the Year Marissa Collins. "Collins was one of the best setters in the nation," said McFatrich. "She did everything we asked her to do, she worked incredibly hard, and I'm very, very proud of her. We saw eye-to-eye on 99% of things. Amy South, who has been in our program for two years now, does all of those things as well. To be honest, there are some things that Amy does a bit better than Marissa did. Amy is quicker to the ball, both play great defense. Last season, in practice, Amy won a lot of the games that we play, so I have all the confidence in the world in her." In her first preseason as the team's main setter, South has drawn praise from the coaching staff: "She's working hard, she sets a great ball, she's fast," said McFatrich. "She's a really good volleyball player, she knows our philosophy, and she knows our offense, so I think she's going to do a really great job."

The Bears also have a freshman setter on the roster, in the form of Kristine Hjembo, from Aalesund, Norway. "Kris had to sit out last year as a non-qualifier, but she's catching up," said McFatrich. "She's starting to do the things that we want her to do in practice and she's a real battler, she wants it really, really bad. Her work ethic, her attitude, her desire and drive; I can't fault any of that. She wants to be a really great player and I think she's taken the first step to getting there."

Besides Hjembo, the Sugar Bears have three other freshmen this season: defensive specialist Rachel Skinner, right side Emily Aranda, and right side Megan Nash. Of Aranda, who moved from middle blocker to right side, McFatrich said, "We thought that Emily would come in and add some depth at middle blocker, but we've moved her to the right side because we think she's more comfortable over there," said McFatrich. "She has to play catch-up right now, because she hasn't been over there as much, but she's working hard, she's coming in for extra reps, and she's a really good teammate." Skinner, a Conway native, was a late addition to the UCA roster, but McFatrich has been impressed, saying, "The gap that was there when we started practice has significantly shrunk. She's doing some great things in practice and we're really happy with how she's progressed." Nash, from Halton, Ontario, Canada played middle blocker in high school but has shifted to right side. "We knew that we were going to move Megan, because we need a presence on the right side to replace Jessica Nagy," said McFatrich. "It's starting to click for her, but it takes a while because the timing, the tempo, and the footwork are all a little bit different. I'm really excited about her progress so far and we're expecting her to make an impact now."

The Sugar Bears, as usual will prepare for SLC play by playing a tough non-conference slate that features three teams that made the NCAA tournament last season. Central Arkansas will open the season in Eugene, Oregon, where they will face off against Illinois State, Oregon, and Ohio State. On the second weekend of the season, UCA will host the 2014 UCA/Sears Sugar Bear Classic, which will see Boise State, Tulsa, and the University of Louisiana at Monroe make the trip to Conway. During the third weekend of the season, the Sugar Bears will participate in the 2014 Four Points by Sheraton Seminole Volleyball Invitational, hosted by Florida State. In the tourney, Central Arkansas will battle Samford, LSU, and Florida State. In the final weekend before conference play starts, UCA will host the 2014 Sugar Bear Invitational, which will see the Sugar Bears take the court against Grambling State, Nevada-Las Vegas, and SLC foe New Orleans. "There have been times in the past when we've opened the season with six straight weeks on the road, and that's been brutal," said McFatrich, "so we've made a point to avoid that if it all possible, which we've been able to do the past couple of years. As far as our non-conference schedule: you have a choice of who you schedule, and we decided to play a tough schedule. The very first weekend we face Oregon out of the Pac-12 and Ohio State out of the Big 12, which are the two best conferences in the nation, bar none. I know some people don't understand why we would want to schedule teams like that, but I think it's good for our team. We can't beat those teams if we don't play them, and a lot of times, we can learn more from a quality loss than we can from an easy win. We don't want to be all about easy wins at UCA."

Live stats for the Sugar Bears' matches at the Oregon Invitational this weekend are available at: http://www.goducks.com/liveStats/liveStats.dbml?SPID=234&DB_OEM_ID=500&LIST_SPORT_KEY=W_VOLLEYBALL. Live video stream of all three matches can be viewed at: http://pac-12.com/videos/university-oregon.