Conway – The Central Arkansas Beach Bears finally made their home debut on Thursday afternoon, taking on the UT Martin Skyhawks in front of a crowd of 311 people at the Beach Bear Sand Courts. UCA put on a dominant showing for its first-ever home crowd, taking down UTM 5-0 without dropping a set.
"It feels great," said UCA head coach Jeni Jones Chatman when discussing how it felt to see her team play at home. "And what I'm really excited about is the support that was here today, from the administration that was out here helping set up to make this place look amazing. You're just transported, it doesn't feel like you're in Arkansas. The crowd and the fan support was amazing, and that's what excited me, and our players the most."
The number one match saw
Haley Tippett and
Megan Nash push their record to 7-3 on the season with a 21-14, 21-8 win over Macy Catlett and Hannah Phillips, while
Kristine Hjembo and
Stephanie Pollnow moved to 4-6 with a 21-7, 21-11 over Hayley Gray and Rachel Noffsinger.
Kate Elman and
Heather Schnars would send the Beach Bears (11-3) into the break with a 3-0 lead, taking then number three match 21-8, 21-13 over Jemima Idemudia and Macy Reigelsperger, pushing their record to 12-2 in the process.
Due to injuries, the first three matches were the only official matches of the day, with the Beach Bears taking the numbers four and five matches by forfeit.
Kellen Dunn and
MC Rogers played an exhibition match against Catlett and Phillips scoring a 21-4, 21-12 win and
Amy South and
Mackenzie Dear took down Gray and Noffsinger 21-10, 21-10. In the final match of the day,
Abbie Harry and
Kimberly Schnars scored a 21-13, 21-15 win over Idemudia and Reigelsperger.
"We talked about how when you have an opportunity to take care of business, you have to take care of business," said Chatman of UCA's dominant play on the day. "Game's only get harder, and if we're waiting on the other team to make a mistake, we aren't being offensive and we aren't going to be able to score points. So the more we can stay in control of the match the better we're going to be."
Central Arkansas returns to action for a pair of matches in the UCA Beach Tournament sponsored by Smoothie King, tomorrow. The Beach Bears will face off with Houston Baptist at 9:30 AM, before playing a rematch with UTM at 2:00 PM. UCA will close out the tournament with a single match on Saturday, battling Louisiana-Monroe at 11:00 AM.
