Conway – The fifth-seeded Central Arkansas Sugar Bears took to the court at the Farris Center looking to become the first, and only, underdog to advance out of the first round of the 2016 Southland Conference Tournament, facing off with the fourth-seeded Houston Baptist Huskies. In front of 530 fans screaming fans, the Sugar Bears took down the Huskies by a final tally of 3-1 to advance to the semifinals for the sixth time in seven tournament appearances.

The opening of the first set proved to be an accurate example of the way the entire match would go, with the Sugar Bears (16-13) and Huskies (18-15) finding themselves tied at 7-7. HBU would break the tie with four straight points to take an 11-7 lead and force a timeout from the Sugar Bears, before Central Arkansas rallied back to an 18-17 lead, forcing a stoppage from the Huskies. The back-and-forth nature of the set would continue with the Sugar Bears taking a timeout trailing 22-21, but the break would benefit Central Arkansas, who closed out the set with four straight points to earn a 1-0 lead in the match with a 25-22 win.  Sophomore Haley Tippett led the UCA attack in the set, hitting .625 to collect five kills and five digs, while fellow sophomores Samantha Anderson and Amanda Dimon got off to hot starts with four kills and five digs respectively.

The second set saw the first lead of the match to exceed four points, as the Sugar Bears built themselves an 11-6 lead to force an HBU timeout. Central Arkansas continued to roll after the timeout, building the lead to 18-10 to cause the Huskies to take their second timeout of the set. HBU would use the stoppage to its advantage, taking five of the next eight points and causing the Sugar Bears to call a timeout of their own. HBU would continue to roll, taking six of the final 10 points, but it was too little, too late as the Sugar Bears pushed their lead to 2-0 in the match behind a 25-21 win in the set. Freshman Elizabeth Armstrong handed out 15 assists in the set, as Anderson added six kills to her to her tally, while Tippett collected four kills and five more digs.

Central Arkansas would again build a solid lead to open the third set, putting up a 12-7 advantage but the Huskies would again battle back, going on a 6-0 run to take a 13-12 lead. HBU would build the lead to 18-15 to force a timeout from the Sugar Bears, who came out of the pause to cut the Husky lead to 19-18. Houston Baptist would extend the lead to 23-18, before UCA would even the match at 23-23. HBU would earn set point, but the Sugar Bears would break it before the Huskies eventually picked up their first set of the match with a 29-27 win. Central Arkansas hit just .019 in the set, getting four kills from Anderson, three from Tippett, and two from junior Megan Nash.

Houston Baptist jumped out to a 5-1 lead to open the fourth set, before the Sugar Bears stormed back to even it at 5-5. The Sugar Bears would take the first timeout of the fourth after HBU took a 14-12 lead, and would then roll to a 17-16 lead to cause the Huskies to take a pause of their own. The next break would go to the Huskies, with the Sugar Bears calling their second timeout trailing 22-21. HBU would take the first point out of the stoppage, but the Sugar Bears evened it at 23-23 to cause the Huskies to call the final timeout of the set. Just like in set three, the Huskies would force set point, but the Sugar Bears again broke the chance and, after trading points, secured the match with a 28-26 win in the set. In the set, Armstrong dished out 16 assists, with Anderson hitting a blazing .571 to collect nine kills.
 

On the night, Central Arkansas got a career-high 23 kills from Anderson, who hit .340 while adding three digs and two blocks. Tippett earned her 14^th double-double of the season, tallying 14 digs and 13 kills, while Nash picked up 11 kills and a match-high seven blocks. Armstrong keyed the UCA attack with a match-high 54 assists, while Dimon collected a team-high 21 digs.

"I think EB did a really nice job running our offense," said UCA head coach Jeni Jones Chatman. "Sam was really impressive tonight; she was able to get to some balls that she hasn't been able to get to this year. She was very impressive tonight, and Amanda was a stealth playmaker for us. She passed the ball well, was there to set when we needed her, and she made great defensive reads."

Chatman continued, saying, "There were a lot of things we talked about with the team, and tonight, the defensive effort was great. There were lots of long rallies, and we were able to win a lot of them, but we were also able to generate a lot of momentum with our back row defense."

On the crowd, which was the largest the Sugar Bears have played in front of at home this season, Chatman said, "It's huge to be able to play in front of our fans, especially when they show up like that. I can't thank Dr. Teague and the university enough for supporting championships on our campus. It's a huge recruiting tool, and you don't have to travel, you get to sleep in your own bed. But even more than that, it's a huge show of commitment by our university and our athletics staff in saying 'Hey, we support you and we want this tournament.'"

With the win, the Sugar Bears move on to the semifinals, where they will square off with top-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, who defeated eight-seeded McNeese 3-1 in the first round. The Sugar Bears and Islanders have faced each other once this season, with the Islanders earning a 3-0 win in Conway on October 1^st.

"We need to have the same defensive mentality and effort," said Chatman of the Sugar Bears' semifinal match-up. "We also need to be more efficient in our offensive output, which will reduce our errors. If we can do all that, we should be able to have another strong match."