Corpus Christi, Texas – The Central Arkansas Bears and Houston Baptist Huskies took to the field at the Jack Dugan Soccer Stadium with a berth in 2016 Southland Conference Tournament Championship on the line. The Bears were unable to pick up the first postseason win in Division I program history, falling to the Huskies 2-0.

Central Arkansas (15-4-1) struggled to string passes together through the early part of the first half, leading to four Houston Baptist (9-10-1) shots over the first 13 minute of the match. HBU would take advantage of a another missed pass in the 18^th minute, when Ellee Hall gathered a loose ball and fired from 20 yards out, placing the ball perfectly between the cross bar and the outstretched fingers of UCA keeper Anna Hughes to put the Huskies up 1-0 with her second goal of the tournament. The Bears would get their first shot of the half just a minute late, but sophomore Camille Bassett's attempt was saved by HBU keeper Alanis Guevara. HBU would get another spell of possession around the 40-minute mark with Hall and Allison Abendschein each having shots blocked, before the Bears took over for the final four minutes, with a flurry of activity leading to four Central Arkansas shots over that time frame.

The first 10 minutes of the second period belonged to the Huskies as well, as HBU put up three shots early. Abendschein banged one off the post and had another saved by
UCA keeper Lauren Mercuri, before Sabriah Spencer fielded a throw-in at the corner of the six-yard box and tapped it just past a diving Mercuri to push the HBU lead to 2-0 in the 55^th minute. The Bears struggled to generate much offense in the second half, generating just four shots over the final 45 minutes. The Bears got their best chance in the final minute of the match, as freshman Jordan Slim beat Guevara but put the attempt off the post. She got her own rebound, but Guevara was able to make the save.

On the night, Central Arkansas took 10 shots, putting just four on goal. Bassett, Slim, junior Karly Kliever, and junior Alex Moore each put one shot on goal for the Bears. In goal, Hughes made a pair of saves in the first half, while Mercuri made one save in the second half.

"Give HBU credit," said UCA head coach Jeremy Bishop after the match. They worked extremely hard defensively, and put us under a ton of pressure. We didn't handle that pressure very well tonight. Although I thought we worked hard, we were just not ourselves. I'm extremely proud of this team and the season we had. They have worked so hard and achieved so much. This senior class has set bar really high and I have no doubt our team next year will work to reach it."

The loss closes out a 2016 season that will be remembered as one of the most successful in program history. The Bears set program record with 15 wins, three better than any previous season, while finishing in the top five in program history in 14 statistical categories. Individually, the Bears had seven players earn All-Southland Conference honors, four better than the previous record, and earned three individual post-season awards, bringing the program's total to four. The Bears saw players put their names in the single-season top-10 18 times this season. Central Arkansas became just the fourth program to make it through the Southland Conference regular season slate undefeated (10-0-1), and finished the regular season with the third-best goal differential in league history, scoring 46 goals and allowing just 13 to finish the season plus-33.