Conway – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears opened the home portion of their schedule on Thursday night, hosting the Little Rock Trojans in front of a raucous crowd in the first match of the 2017 UCA Invitational. The Trojans grabbed an early lead, taking the first set 25-22, but the Sugar Bears rallied taking the next three sets 25-17, 25-18, 25-18 for the 3-1 win.
"It was a great crowd, and they were way into it," said UCA head coach Jeni Jones Chatman. "Sometimes you get into an arena and there's a big crowd, but they're really quiet, but I felt like the crowd tonight was really a great presence. They were into it, they were invested in every point, and that's what you want."
After Central Arkansas (4-0) took the first point of the match, Little Rock (1-3) quickly reeled off a 6-0 run to take the lead and force timeout from the Sugar Bears. The six -point lead would hold for much of the set, until Central Arkansas used a
Savanah Allen kill to cut it to 16-11 and start chipping away. Central Arkansas would take five of the final eight points in the set, before the Trojans' Marina Avram ended the set with a kill. Despite swinging at a .346 clip, the Sugar Bears would find themselves outhit in the set, at Little Rock turned in a .372 mark.
Haley Tippett paced Central Arkansas with six kills in the set, as
Elizabeth Armstrong collected 14 assists and
Amanda Dimon added five digs.
"I think we came out and we were so excited to be playing at home and coming off a good opening weekend, that we were trying to do and be too much," said Chatman. "When everybody does their job, that's when we're firing on all cylinders and that's when we play pretty volleyball, but if we have people trying to do too much, it keeps us unorganized and chaotic. Once we got back under control, things started clicking."
The second set saw Central Arkansas build an early lead and the Trojans take the early timeout, with Little Rock calling for a stoppage trailing 6-3. The break did nothing to slow the Sugar Bears though, as they would take eight of the next 12 points, pushing the lead to 14-7 and forcing another Little Rock timeout. UCA would build the lead to 19-10 before cruising to the set win. Tippett would add four kills to her tally to go along with a solo block, and
Megan Nash would add a pair of solo blocks as the Sugar Bears limited the Trojans to a .147 attack percentage.
The teams would trade points early in the third set, until a four-point swing saw the Sugar Bears grab a 10-5 lead. UCA would extend the lead to 20-13 before calling timeout after Little Rock cut it to 20-15. The Sugar Bears would then take four of the final six points to close out the match. Armstrong again passed out 14 assists and
Samantha Anderson led the Sugar Bears with six kills, while
Emily Doss picked up a set-high six digs.
The Trojans would force a Central Arkansas timeout by jumping out to a 9-3 lead, before the Sugar Bears went on an 11-2 run, taking a 14-11 lead and causing Little Rock to take a timeout of its own. The Trojans would keep the deficit at two for the next handful of points before Central Arkansas closed out the match with a 9-2 run. Anderson picked up five more kills, and Nash added four kills and three blocks, while Doss added four digs.
On the day, the Central Arkansas offense was keyed by Armstrong, who picked up 51 assists. Tippett tied for the match-high with 16 kills, Anderson added 15, and
Kellen Dunn chipped in 11. Defensively, Nash picked up a match-high five blocks, while Doss had 15 digs and Tippett completed the double-double with 14 of her own.
"Haley was phenomenal tonight," said Chatman. "I'm so proud of the maturity that she showed. She showed that she's a multifaceted attacker that has more than just attacks that are hard and harder. She certainly has that, but she also got her feet to the ball and created plays, and she did it all over the floor.
The Sugar Bears return to action tomorrow, taking on the Memphis Tigers at 7:00 PM.
"Memphis is a team that always battles hard," said Chatman of the Tigers. "We've gotten to see film on them, and it's going to be a battle, just like it was at their place last year."
