Hammond, La. – The Central Arkansas volleyball team returned to action on Thursday night, travelling to Hammond, Louisiana to take on the Southeastern Louisiana Lady Lions. Central Arkansas took the first set before Southeastern rebounded to take a 2-1 lead with wins in the second and third set. After the Sugar Bears forced a fifth set, the Lady Lions just edged them out in the fifth, downing UCA 3-2.

Central Arkansas (15-12, 11-4 SLC) was outhit .263 to .158 in the first set, but used 15 team digs and a pair of blocks to edge the Lady Lions (13-17, 7-9 SLC) 25-23 to take a 1-0 lead in the match. Sophomore Megan Nash and freshman Nicole Peters each tallied three kills in the set.

In the second set, the Sugar Bears held a .179 to .091 advantage in attach percentage, but surrendered seven points on the serve (five service errors, two reception errors) to drop the set 25-21. Two additional players picked up three kill sets, as senior Heather Schnars and freshman Samantha Anderson each added three kills to their totals.

In the third set, Central Arkansas hit just .088 to Southeastern's .121 and were at a 15-12 disadvantage in digs, falling into a 2-1 hole as the Lady Lions took the set 25-20. Anderson and Schnars picked up four kills each in the set.

With their backs to the wall, the Sugar Bears came out swinging in the fourth, hitting .400 and limiting Southeastern to a -.216 hitting percentage to force a fifth set by taking the fourth 25-10. Schnars led the way with four kills as UCA took advantage of 14 SLU attack errors in the set.

Central Arkansas was unable to maintain the hot streak though, as the Sugar Bears' attack percentage fell to .105 in the decisive set. Schnars picked up four kills and Anderson added three, but the Sugar Bears proved unable to complete the rally, dropping the set 16-14.

On the night, Schnars tallied a match-high 17 kills and Anderson chipped in 12, as senior Amy South dished out a match-high 44 assists. On the defensive side, freshman Allie Kemp totaled a match-high 20 digs, and Schnars picked up her 12^th double-double of the season with 17 digs. At the net, Nash had a match-high 10 blocks, while Anderson added five.

The loss saw the Sugar Bears fall into a tie for second place in the Southland Conference with Stephen F. Austin after the Ladyjacks took down Abilene Christian 3-1. Because of Central Arkansas' 3-0 win over SFA earlier this season, the Sugar Bears hold the tiebreaker, meaning that UCA can lock up second place with an SFA loss to Incarnate Word or a win over New Orleans on Saturday. Both matches are set to begin at noon.