Monroe, Louisiana – The Central Arkansas Beach Volleyball team continued its inaugural season on Friday, heading to Monroe, Louisiana to take part in ULM's Bayou Beach Bash. UCA opened the day with a 4-1 win over Houston Baptist before handing ULM its first-ever home loss with a 3-2 win in the nightcap.
The Beach Bears (6-0) took to the court for the second match of the Bash, going head-to-head with the Huskies (8-7). The Bears, who were playing at full-strength for the first time this season, saw the pairing of
Abbie Harry and
Kimberly Schnars pick up a win in the exhibition match, taking down Hannah Lewis and Madison O'Brien by identical 21-19 scores.
Kellen Dunn and
MC Rogers then took the first point of the match with a 2-1 win at the No. 4 slot. The UCA duo won a hard-fought first set 26-22 before the Huskies' Taylor Livoti and Tiffany Thomas won the second set 21-18. Dunn and Rogers rallied though, securing the point with a 16-14 win in the final set. HBU would then get on the board thanks to a straight-set win in the No. 2 match, where Kayla Armer and Tori Hinojosa picked up 21-18, 21-19 win over
Kristine Hjembo and
Stephanie Pollnow.
That would be all the Huskies could manage though, as the Beach Bears kept the match out of reach with three wins after the break.
Amy South and
Mackenzie Dear dropped the first set of the No. 5 match 20-22 to Morgan McDaniel and Danielle Wheeler, but rebounded to take the second set 21-10 before winning the third 15-9, while
Heather Schnars and
Kate Elman earned a straight-set, 21-13, 21-18 win over Bailey Banks and Melissa Fuchs at the No. 3 slot.
Megan Nash and
Haley Tippett finished things off with a sweep of Aeriel Horton and Jessica Wooten in the No. 1 match, taking down the HBU pair 25-23, 21-19.
Harry and Kimberly Schnars again got things started on the right foot against ULM (9-5) picking up a 21-14, 22-20 win over Holland Ponthieux and Ana Ribiero in the exhibition match. Dunn and Rogers pushed their record to 2-0 on the day, with a 2-1 win over Grace Convey and Bailey Smith. The UCA pair took the first set 21-17 before the Warhawks bounced back with a 21-16 win in the second. Dunn and Rogers would give the Beach Bears the lead with a 15-7 win in the third set. The Warhawks would even the match at 1-1 thanks to a win from Delaney Driver and Gabby Love over Hjembo and Pollnow. Hjembo and Pollnow took the first set 27-25, before the Warhawks' pairing struck back with a 21-16 win in the second set and a 15-12 win in the third.
ULM would take a 2-1 lead in the first match out of the break, as South and Dear fell to Rebecca Brown and Catherine Griffin 21-10, 17-21, 15-6 at the No. 5 position, but Elman and Heather Schnars evened things up with a 21-13, 21-9 win over Claire Crossfield and Tara Jenkins in the No. 3 match. Nash and Tippett would then wrap up the win for the Bears at in the No. 1 match, taking down Hadley Swartz and Kori Simpson 21-17, 21-17.
"Today was another really good day for our program," said UCA head coach Jeni Jones Chatman. "I am very proud of the fight we showed against both HBU and ULM, who are both very good, established programs. We are looking forward to another great day tomorrow in this strong tournament field."
Central Arkansas closes out its appearance at the Bash with a pair of matches tomorrow. The Beach Bears will face off with TCU at 9:00 AM, before closing out the weekend against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 2:00 PM.
