Conway – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears took to the court at the Prince Center on Saturday afternoon, taking on the Southeastern Louisiana Lady Lions to close out an eight match home stand. After a slow start in the first set, the Sugar Bears rallied, taking down the Lady Lions in straight sets to push their win streak to seven matches.
Southeastern Louisiana (7-10, 1-2 SLC) led for the early portion of the first set, but the Sugar Bears battled back, closing out the set with a 6-0 run to take the first set 25-21. Senior
Amy South marshalled the Central Arkansas comeback, dishing out 14 assists in the set.
"I was really pleased to see the way that we fought in set one," said Central Arkansas head coach Jeni Jones. "We fought and we battled and to be able to get a win after being down as much as we were, I was really pleased to see that. The service pressure from Heather Schnars and Megan Nash was tremendous."
Central Arkansas (9-9, 5-1 SLC) came out firing in the second set, building an 8-2 lead. The sides would trade points until the score was 11-7 in favor of the Sugar Bears, when Central Arkansas went on a 6-0 run to put the set firmly under its control. The Sugar Bears would take the set 25-15 to extend their lead in the match to 2-0.
The Sugar Bears dominated the third set, hitting .300 and limiting the Lady Lions to a -.027 attack percentage, taking the set 25-10 to win the match 3-0.
On the day, Central Arkansas was led by senior
Heather Schnars, who tallied a match-high 12 kills, and sophomore
Megan Nash, who added 11 kills while hitting a blistering .714. South turned in a match-high 33 assists. On the defensive front, Schnars dug a match-high 13 assists, and Nash picked up a pair of solo blocks.
"Any time you can have a middle hitting in the high .300s, that's great, especially being in the M1, where she's surrounded by the setters," said Jones. "But Megan has proven that she can handle a heavy load. She started out a little slow, but she got it turned around and just got it going for us."
Central Arkansas hits the road for the first two matches of a four match road trip next weekend. The Sugar Bears will take on McNeese State at 7:00 PM on Thursday, before battling Nicholls at 12:00 PM on Saturday. "We have to keep doing the things that we need to do and keep putting the time in," said Jones of the Sugar Bears' road trip.
"Obviously we won't get the environment of the Prince Center, but it's going to be important to show that we can perform on the road and within the conference. We know that everyone is going to be really prepared for us, so I'm looking forward to fine-tuning some things that we need to fine-tune."
