Conway – After a year and a half of waiting, the Central Arkansas beach volleyball program will finally host its first matches, welcoming a trio of teams to the UCA Beach Courts for the UCA Beach Tournament, hosted by Smoothie King. The Tournament will feature the Beach Bears, UT-Martin, Houston Baptist, and ULM.
"It's very exciting," said UCA head coach Jeni Jones Chatman. "This year has been so great. The program that we have, and the players that are in it that we've tried to develop a culture with, have done all that we had hoped they would do, and more. With us finally being home, especially after being on the road as much as we have been this year, the players are just so excited to be able to play in front of their home crowd and their families and friends. There's a lot of hype in the community right now, and that's just so exciting."
The weekend will mark the end of the Beach Bears' inaugural season, one that has seen them tally 10 wins while falling just three times, all to ranked teams.
"If you told me at the beginning of the season that we'd be 10-3 at this point, I'm not sure I would have taken that bet," said Chatman. "I knew we had some good pieces, I just wasn't sure how we'd be able to put those pieces together and what we'd be able to produce with them. So I'm really proud with what we've done."
"The pairing with
Haley Tippett and
Megan Nash has gone really well so far this year," continued Chatman. "You look at a player like Haley, she's probably got more experience playing beach than anyone else on our team, and she and Megan have been improving each and every match, which is fun to see."
The Beach Bears will also be celebrating Senior Weekend and honoring the contributions of seniors
Kate Elman,
Heather Schnars, and
Amy South, who will be making their final appearance for Central Arkansas.
"I'm really pleased with this group," said Chatman of the Beach Bears' first senior class. "Heather has been able to take those attacking skills that she had in the indoor game and figured out how to use them in the beach game. And for players like Kate and Amy, who have never had to be attacking players in their lives, to step in and do the things that they're doing is pretty impressive. But that's just a tribute to their work ethic and their drive as volleyball players and as people. And that's why they're in our program: to help create a culture of what it means to be a UCA beach volleyball player, in terms of work ethic, academic success, and just being a winner."
Chatman continued to sing the praises of the Beach Bears' veterans, saying, "In beach volleyball, there's no one really statting kills and digs and that kind of thing, but with Amy and Kate, their ability to problem-solve and find ways to contribute has been awesome. They've had to get out of their comfort zones, whether it's serve-receive for Amy or setting for Kate, and I'm really pleased with how receptive they were to everything. The old saying is that you can't teach and old dog new tricks, but that's exactly what we've been doing. They've been playing volleyball for over ten years, but they bought into the training and the culture we were trying to build. And as far as Heather goes, she's gotten to a point where her execution in the sand has reached what it was in the indoor game. Her transition to beach has been a bit different, because she was a six-rotation player in the indoor game, but she's still had to work on setting and she's done that. We couldn't have asked for a greater group of seniors."
Central Arkansas will open the weekend on Thursday afternoon at 4:00 PM against UT-Martin, before taking to the court twice on Saturday. The Beach Bears will take on Houston Baptist at 9:30 AM on Friday morning and will play a rematch with the Skyhawks at 2:00 PM Friday afternoon, before closing out the Tournament against ULM at 11:00 AM on Saturday. Smoothie King Conway will be at the UCA Beach Courts for all three days of the UCA Beach Tournament, providing free samples to those in attendance.
