Conway – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears and Sam Houston State Bearkats squared off in a battle of two of the Southland Conference's top three teams on Saturday afternoon. Central Arkansas would prove the stronger team on the day, getting a career performance from Amanda Beaton to take out the Bearkats 25-23, 25-18, 24-26, 25-17.

Sam Houston State (13-11, 9-2 SLC) took a 6-3 lead to open the match before a 6-1 Central Arkansas (21-3, 10-2 SLC) run saw the Sugar Bears take a 9-7 lead. The Bearkats would take the next two points to even the match at 9-9, before UCA took eight-straight points to open up a 17-9 lead. SHSU would battle back, eventually cutting the UCA lead to one point at 24-23, but a kill from Samantha Anderson gave the Sugar Bears a 1-0 lead in the match. Elizabeth Armstrong handed out 15 kills in the set, as UCA got four kills each from Anderson, Beaton, and Megan Nash.

The second set saw the Sugar Bears take an early lead, with UCA grabbing a 7-3 lead to force an early timeout from the Bearkats, before Central Arkansas extended the lead out to 19-13. SHSU would pull to within five points, but Central Arkansas would cruise to a 2-0 lead in the match. Beaton led the UCA attack in the set, adding six kills to her total, while Anderson and Abbie Harry each picked up three kills.

The Bearkats would storm out of the break, opening an 8-3 lead to force a stoppage from the Sugar Bears, who would pull to within two points at 14-12. After Sam Houston State took four of the next five points to extend the lead to 18-13, before UCA got a four-point run to cut it to 18-17. UCA would even the match four times before the Bearkats closed out the set thanks to a kill from Taylor Cunningham and a UCA error. Armstrong dished out 13 more assists in the set, while Beaton added six kills and Nash and Harry each tallied five more kills.

Sam Houston State took a 4-2 lead to open the fourth set, and would extend the lead to 11-5, before Central Arkansas rallied, taking a 15-12 lead with a 10-1 run. The Bearkats would cut the lead to one at 16-15, but the Sugar Bears used a 9-2 run to close out the match. Central Arkansas took advantage of 6.0 team blocks to limit the Bearkats to a -.091 attack percentage in the set, getting three blocks from both Anderson and Savanah Allen.

"I think our service pressure was really good today, and I thought the defensive effort we had on Thursday was carried over to today," said UCA head coach Jeni Jones Chatman. "We talked about how important that was going to be, especially against a team like Sam Houston State, and I think we really brought that mentality today. I really like the fight that our players had, it was great to see Megan put up the numbers that she had this week, and I'm really proud of Abbie and Amanda Beaton who both had some key swings in some key situations for us."

Beaton tallied a career-high 20 kills on 45 swings to lead the Sugar Bear attack, while Nash hit .520 with 15 kills and four blocks, and Harry tallied 13 kills. Armstrong contributed across all phases of the game, collecting 52 assists, nine digs, four blocks, and two kills. Defensively, Amanda Dimon collected a team-high 11 digs.

"We're in a situation, and have been all year, where we feel like the arsenal we have on the bench is just as good as the arsenal we have on the floor. The level of play in the gym is so good, and I think that's helped us in our practice environment to battle and to be battle-tested going into these matches; but I also think it's great when our players can go in and it's their time take over and they're coming in and doing that."

Central Arkansas hits the road for a pair of matches next week, taking on the Northwestern State Lady Demons at 6:30 PM on Tuesday and the Houston Baptist Huskies at 6:00 PM on Thursday.

"I really think this weekend was a turning point and stepping stone for us, as far as a mentality shift and from an execution standpoint. There are two weeks left in the regular
season and the push is to maintain and to fine-tune what we're doing.

"I think that we need to keep the consistency that we've had in practice and know that it's going to be a battle, just like it was this week," said Chatman of the Sugar Bears' upcoming week. "That's how it was in practice and in match-play this week, and that's how it's going to be from here on out with every team we play because every team we play is battling for something, whether is seeding in the conference tournament or just to get into the conference tournament so we've got some work to do, but we're excited about it."