Conway – The Central Arkansas Beach Bears took to the court for the final time in their inaugural season, closing out the UCA Beach Tournament, sponsored by Smoothie King, against ULM. The Beach Bears closed the season on a high-note, sweeping the Warhawks, before honoring seniors
Kate Elman,
Heather Schnars, and
Amy South.
The No. 6 match saw ULM's (19-11) Holland Ponthieux and Ana Ribeiro score a 21-19, 21-19 win over
Abbie Harry and
Kimberly Schnars, who end the year with a 6-3 record, but South and
Mackenzie Dear got Central Arkansas (14-3) on the board first by taking down Bailey Smith and Grace Convey 21-15, 23-21 to move to5-5 on the season.
Kellen Dunn and
MC Rogers picked up a 21-15, 21-16 win over Rebecca Brown and Catherine Griffith in the No. 3 match to send the Beach Bears into the break with a 2-0 lead and end the season with an 8-3 record.
Elman and H. Schnars would open the second half with a 21-17, 21-12 win over Gabby Love and Delaney Drive in the No. 3 match, finishing the year with a 15-2 record, before
Kristine Hjembo and
Stephanie Pollnow won a hard-fought No. 2 match 27-25, 21-15 victory over Kori Simpson and Claire Crossfield to wrap up the season with a 6-7 record.
Haley Tippett and
Megan Nash finished things off by winning the No. 1 match against Hadley Swartz and Tara Jenkins to end the year 10-3.
"ULM is a really great team, and I think our team just kind of took it to another level this weekend," said UCA head coach Jeni Jones Chatman. "Every time you can play at home you love it, but the crowd support this weekend was incredible. It creates a lot of energy and it just made this weekend a really exciting event and a really fun event."
On the play of her seniors, Chatman said, "I'm really proud of them. Amy and Mack have grown so much throughout the season. It was such a great pairing for them chemistry-wise; they fed off of each other really well, and complemented each other really well. It's going to be really difficult to replace Kate, Amy, and Heather from a leadership standpoint, because they were able to lead by example, or verbally hold people accountable, or whatever it took, and no matter what we asked of them, they were willing to do it."
