Norman, Okla. – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears made a pair of appearances in the 2015 Oklahoma Nike Invitation on Friday, taking the court against the Mean Green of North Texas and the Trojan of Little Rock. The Sugar Bears and Mean Green played a hotly-contested match, but North Texas eventually emerged victorious, downing the Sugar Bears 3-2, before the Trojans scored a 3-1 victory over Central Arkansas.

North Texas (2-2) grabbed the lead following a first set win of 25-23. The Sugar Bears (1-3) were outhit .346-.152 in the set, but got six kills from freshman Samantha Anderson. Central Arkansas rebounded to outhit the Mean Green .324 to .077 in the second set, evening the match at one set apiece thanks to a 25-18 win. Anderson added five more kills to her tally, while senior Heather Schnars got five of her own.

A third set win of 25-22 gave the Sugar Bears a 2-1 lead in the match. Central Arkansas got six more kills from Anderson and four from freshman Kellen Dunn, outhitting North Texas .343 to .176.

The Mean Green hit just .184 in the fourth set, but took advantage of the Sugar Bears' .154 mark to even the match at 2-2 with a 25-22 win. Schnars tallied a set-high five kills for Central Arkansas.

The Sugar Bears struggled to get anything going in the fifth set, hitting -.048 to the Mean Green's .500 to fall 15-4 in the set and 3-2 in the match.

For the match,  Central Arkansas was led by Anderson, who tallied a team-high 21 kills behind a .271 hitting percentage, seven digs, and seven blocks. Schnars collected 16 kills. Amy South keyed the Central Arkansas attack, dishing out a match-high 47 assists while notching a double-double with 11 digs. Defensively, Corri Hunt's 17 digs and Anderson and Savanah Allen's seven blocks led the team.

The day's second match opened with Little Rock (1-4) outhitting the Sugar Bears .275 to .200 to take the first set 25-22. Central Arkansas got five kills on just six attempts from junior Fulani Petties in the set.

The second set also went to Little Rock, by a score of 25-20. Central Arkansas hit just .122 for the set, and got three kills each from Anderson, Schnars, and junior Rachel Sharp.

The Sugar Bears got on the board by taking the third set 25-23 on the back of 13 assists from South, who fed Schnars six times and Sharp five times.

Little Rock locked up the win by taking the fourth set 25-18. Schnars again paced the Sugar Bears with five kills.

For the match, Schnars tallied a team-high 15 kills, while Petties added 13 and Sharp chipped in 11. South dished out 36 assists on the night, and sophomore Kristine Hjembo added 10 of her own, while on the defensive front, freshman Amanda Dimon collected a match-high 20 digs. South tallied 11 digs for her second double-double of the day, and Schars picked up a double-double of her own with 13 digs. Petties also collected a team-high six blocks.

Central Arkansas returns to the court tomorrow, taking on Invitational host Oklahoma. The match is set to begin at noon.