Lake Charles, Louisiana – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears continued their current four-match road trip on Saturday, heading to Lake Charles, Louisiana to take on the McNeese State Cowgirls. The Sugar Bears found themselves stuck in their third five set battle of the season, ultimately falling to the Cowgirls 3-2.
Central Arkansas (17-3, 6-2 SLC) opened an 8-5 lead in the first set, before a 5-1 streak pushed it to 12-7. McNeese would use a 3-0 run to cut it to 17-13, but the Sugar Bears would take six of the final eight points to take the set 25-17 for a 1-0 lead in the match. UCA hit .344 in the set, getting 14 assists from
Elizabeth Armstrong and five kills from
Abbie Harry.
The Sugar Bears would take a 9-4 lead to open the second set, before the Cowgirls (13-10, 5-4 SLC) battled back to even things up at 15-15. Kills from
Megan Nash and Harry would give UCA a 17-15 lead, but McNeese would go on a6-0 run to go up 21-17 before tying the match at 1-1 with a 25-22 win in the set.
Samantha Anderson tallied seven kills in the set, and Armstrong added 17 assists, while
Haley Tippett had seven digs.
The third set would see the sides play to a 10-10 draw, before McNeese took a 16-11 lead with a 6-1 run. Central Arkansas would cut the lead to 23-19,but a pair of errors saw the Cowgirls take a 2-1 lead with a 25-19 win in the set. Harry paced the Sugar Bears with five kills in the set, while Tippett and Anderson each had three kills.
Central Arkansas opened the fourth set by taking an 11-7 lead, and broke a 12-12 tie with a 4-0 run to take a 16-12 lead, before taking six of the final eight points of the set, evening the match at two sets apiece with a 25-17 win in the set. Harry and Tippett picked up four kills in the set, while
Emily Doss dug eight Cowgirl attacks.
Central Arkansas took an early 4-3 lead in the fifth set, before McNeese got a 5-1 run to take control with an 8-5 lead. UCA would pull to within a point, trailing 10-9, but the
Cowgirls would take four of the final five points of the match, earning the 3-2 win with a 15-11 win in the set. Harry added five kills to her tally in the set, and Armstrong picked up six assists.
On the day, Harry hit .326 with a career-best 22 kills, while Tippett picked up her seventh double-double of the season with 16 kills and 16 digs. Armstrong handed out 60 assists and added nine digs, and Anderson added 16 kills. Defensively, Doss had a match-high 20 digs and
Amanda Dimon chipped in with 15, while Nash had four blocks.
The Sugar Bears continue their road swing next weekend, heading to Hammond, Louisiana to take on the Southeastern Louisiana Lady Lions at 7:00 PM on Thursday evening. Central Arkansas will then travel to New Orleans, Louisiana to face off with the New Orleans Privateers at 12:00 PM on Saturday.
