Conway – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears returned to action in the 2016 Crain Automotive Invitational, on Friday night, welcoming former Southland Conference opponent Oral Roberts to the Farris Center. UCA suffered an up-and-down night offensively, falling to the Golden Eagles 3-1.

Central Arkansas (2-3) roared out of the gates, hitting .318 in the first set, behind three kills from sophomore Haley Tippett and two each from senior Rachel Sharp and sophomore Samantha Anderson. Unfortunately, ORU (3-2) hit an even better .407 in the set and got eight kills from Laura Milos to take the set 25-19.

The Sugar Bears would see their efficiency drop in the second set, at they would hit just .091. Tippett and Anderson were the only UCA players with multiple kills in the set, tallying two each, while freshman Amanda Beaton and sophomore Kellen Dunn each recorded one kill. ORU got four kills each from Shelby Cox and Katarina Mikulic, extending their lead to 2-0 in the match thanks to a 25-14 set win.

UCA responded well after the break, upping their attack percentage to .261, while using solid defense to cut the ORU lead to 2-1 behind a 25-22 win in the set. Sophomore Savanah Allen tallied three blocks in the set, while Tippett, Sharp, and freshman Elizabeth Armstrong each collected three digs.

The comeback would fail to materialize, however, as UCA was outhit .310 to .080 in the fourth. Beaton was the on Sugar Bear to hit over .000 in the set, hitting .300 while racking up five kills.

On the night, Beaton led the Central Arkansas attack with nine kills, while Anderson tallied eight. Armstrong and junior Kristine Hjembo each handed out 14 assists, while Sharp totaled nine digs and Allen picked up six blocks.

UCA closes out the weekend with a  pair of matches tomorrow. The Sugar Bears will square off with Alcorn State at 12:30 PM, before ending the tournament against ULM at 7:30.