Buffalo, New York – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears took to the court for their final match at the Buffalo Invite on Saturday morning, facing off with host Buffalo. The Sugar Bears continued the strong defensive play that they have exhibited all weekend, limiting the Bulls to a .101 attack percentage to earn their third sweep of the tournament.
Central Arkansas (3-0) took the first six points of the match, eventually opening up an 8-1 lead before Buffalo (2-1) got four straight points to cut the UCA lead to 8-5. Buffalo would pull to within two points at 13-11 before the Sugar Bears pushed it back to 16-11 to force a timeout from the Bulls. Buffalo would hang around in the set, eventually tying things up at 22-22, before the Sugar Bears would take three of the final four points to take the first set 25-23.
Elizabeth Armstrong dished out 14 assists to key the Central Arkansas attack in the set, as
Samantha Anderson picked up five kills and
Haley Tippett and
Kellen Dunn added four. Defensively,
Kelly Douglas led the way with four digs.
In the second set it was Buffalo's turn to build an early lead, with the Bulls taking a 4-0 lead before Central Arkansas would battle back to even things up at 11-11. UCA would take control, grabbing a 20-14 lead before cruising to a 25-20 set win. Armstrong added 14 assists to her total, as
Megan Nash collected five kills and Douglas and
Amanda Dimon each dug six Buffalo attacks.
UCA would open the third set by taking a 10-3 lead to force a timeout from the Bulls, before the Bulls went on a 12-5 run to take a 15-14 lead. Buffalo would push the lead to 18-15 before Central Arkansas would retake the lead for the final time, going up 20-19 on a kill from Tippett. A kill from Anderson would give the Sugar Bears the 25-23 win to secure the third sweep of the weekend. Anderson had a set-high five kills, while Tippett and
Emily Doss each added five digs.
On the day, three Sugar Bears tallied double-digit kills, as Anderson picked up a match-high 13 and Tippett and Nash each added 11, while Armstrong dished out 44 assists. On the defensive front, a trio of UCA players had double-digit digs, as Douglas had a match-high 14 digs, Doss had 12 and Dimon added 10.
Following the match, Doss and Anderson were named to the Buffalo Invite All-Tournament Team, while Nash earned Tournament MVP honors. For the weekend, Doss totaled 28 digs for an average of 3.11 per set, while Anderson hit .310 and averaged 3.22 kills per set and 0.67 blocks per set. Nash was a jack-of-all-trades for the Sugar Bears, hitting .415 and averaging 2.56 kills, 1.33 digs, 1.00 blocks, and 0.56 service aces.
Central Arkansas opens the home portion of its schedule next weekend, hosting the Central Arkansas Invitational at the Farris Center. UCA will take on Little Rock at 7:00 PM Thursday, Memphis at 7:00 PM Friday, and Tennessee-Martin at 1:30 PM Saturday.
