Beaumont, Texas – The Central Arkansas volleyball team played its third straight road match on Thursday, heading to Beaumont Texas to take on the Lamar Cardinals at McDonald Gym, where the Cards held a perfect 9-0 record on the year. The Sugar Bears became the first black mark on Lamar's home schedule, taking down the Cardinals in straight sets, 25-23, 25-16, 25-16.
The Sugar Bears (11-10, 7-2 SLC) and Cardinals traded runs throughout the early portion of the first set, before a four-point rally gave Central Arkansas a 15-11 lead to force a Lamar (13-8, 3-4 SLC) timeout. The lead would hold, as neither side was able to string more than two points together for the rest of the set. Central Arkansas hit .300 in the set, led by senior
Heather Schnars, sophomore
Megan Nash, and freshman
Nicole Peters, who all turned in attack percentages of .500.
The second set started out in a similar way, until Central Arkansas again went on a 4-0 run to take a 10-7 lead and again force a timeout from the Cards. After Lamar got the first point out of the break, the Sugar Bears got a 5-0 run, pushing their advantage to 15-8, and never looked back, closing out the set with an 8-4 run. The Sugar Bears upped their hitting to .400 in the set, and got eight kills from Schnars, while senior
Amy South passed out 14 assists.
The Sugar Bears wasted no time in the final set, opening with a 6-0 run to force yet another Cardinal timeout. After the teams traded points, Lamar got a 4-0 run to force a Central Arkansas timeout with Sugar Bears up 9-7. UCA exploded out of the break with a six-point rally, pushing their lead to 15-7, and putting the set out of reach. The Cardinals were only able to get back-to-back points once during the remainder of the set. Central Arkansas got seven more kills from Schnars, while Nash added four of her own.
On the night, Central Arkansas hit .340 and had a trio of players that hit over that mark. Schnars hit .415 with a match-high 20 kills, Nash hit .350 with nine kills, and freshman
Samantha Anderson hit .500 with eight kills. South keyed the Central Arkansas attack, dishing out a match-high 39 assists. On the defensive front, the Sugar Bears got 12 digs from freshman
Allie Kemp and a match-high five blocks from Nash.
Central Arkansas closes out their current road trip on Saturday, traveling to Huntsville, Texas to take on Sam Houston State. The match is set to begin at 2:00 PM.
