Conway – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears took the court at the Prince Center for the first time under head coach Jeni Jones on Thursday night, and they were welcomed home by a record 529 people. The match against the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders served as the opener for both the Sugar Bears' Southland Conference slate, and for the 2015 UCA Volleyball Crain Automotive Invitational. The Islanders proved to be too much for the Sugar Bears on the night, as Central Arkansas fell 3-0.

"It was a great home environment, everything that everybody proclaimed it to be," said Jones of her first experience coaching in the Prince. "The crowd was so loud and into it, and they were a very knowledgeable volleyball crowd, so it was a lot of fun. It was packed, I thought our student section was great; the support here is incredible."

The first set was a back-and-fourth affair, with neither side able to get ahead by more than four points. The Islanders (10-3, 1-0 SLC) eventually got back-to-back kills from Kelsee Felux to take the set 25-22 and stake themselves to a 1-0 lead in the match.

The Sugar Bears (2-9, 0-1 SLC) outhit the Islanders .312 to .244 in the set, and were led by senior Heather Schnars and junior Rachel Sharp, who each tallied four kills, while the Islanders got six each from Felux and Ivy Baresh.

The second set looked to be a copy of the first, with the squads trading small two- and three-point runs until the Islanders took an 18-12 lead following a 4-0 run. Central Arkansas got a 3-1 run of its own to pull to within four points, but was unable to get any closer, falling 25-18 in the set.

The Sugar Bears took a 2-1 lead to open the third set, before a 6-0 Islander run forced a Central Arkansas timeout. Central Arkansas came out of the timeout well, pulling to within 10-7, before the teams began trading points. Trailing 22-17, the Sugar Bears took advantage of two AMCC miscues and kills from Schnars and junior Fulani Petties to cut the Islander lead to 22-21 and force a timeout. The Islanders exploded out of the timeout though, getting a 3-0 run to take the set 25-21 and the match 3-0.

The Sugar Bears, who came into the match averaging 1.5 service aces per set, struggled with the serve on both offense and defense on the night, getting just one ace while committing 11 service aces and eight reception errors.

"Between our service errors and our reception errors, we gave up 19 points, almost an entire set," said Jones. "That's unacceptable. It's something that we've been working on in practice and something that we're going to have to continue to work on. As far as our service errors, we're going to have to be more accurate."

Schnars led the Central Arkansas attack on the night, with a match-high 16 kills while hitting .308, while fellow senior Amy South dished out a team-high 25 assists.
Defensively, the Sugar Bears were led by freshman Amanda Dimon's 10 digs, and junior Megan Nash's three blocks.

Central Arkansas returns to the court tomorrow night, hosting Louisiana Tech on the second day of the UCA Volleyball Crain Automotive Invitational. The match, which will take place in the Farris Center, is scheduled to begin at 7:00 PM.

"I'm glad that we're at a point where we're playing one match a day, instead of two matches back-to-back, like we've been doing the past three weekends," said Jones. "Our players get to go to class until what would usually be our normal practice time, so it's good for them to get into that routine. Louisiana Tech is a good team, they're a well-coached team, and we know that they're going to bring their A-game.