Conway – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears continued play in the UCA Invitational on Friday night, hosting the Memphis Tigers at the Farris Center. Despite hitting just .191 on the night, the Sugar Bears found other ways to pick up points, taking advantage of eight service aces and ten team blocks to sweep the Tigers 25-23, 25-16, 26-22 for their fourth sweep of the season.
Just like last night, the Sugar Bears (5-0) started slow, finding themselves trailing a 7-1 hole early in the first set. Memphis (1-4) would nurse the lead to 14-8 forcing Central Arkansas to take its second timeout, before UCA went on a 13-5 run to take a 21-19 lead and cause the Tigers to take a timeout of their own. A kill from
Haley Tippett would close out the set for UCA. The Sugar Bears hit just .118 in the set, but got two service aces from both
Megan Nash and
Kelly Douglas, as well as two blocks each from Nash and
Savanah Allen.
"We battled back, and we battled hard," said UCA head coach Jeni Jones Chatman. "We've got to start finding a way to not put ourselves in that position, but credit to Memphis for putting us there. I think it starts with first-ball contact, and that was a little sporadic early on in set one. When we start losing our communication, that's when it gets sporadic."
Memphis would again build an early lead in the second set, jumping in front 7-3 before a 5-0 Sugar Bear run gave UCA an 8-7 lead. UCA would use a 5-1 run with the match tied at 10-10 to take the lead for good, cruising to the 25-16 win to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
Amanda Dimon added two more aces to UCA's tally, and Tippett pulled down three blocks while Allen led the way with six kills in the set.
Trailing 5-4 in the third set, the Sugar Bears again retook the lead, this time with a 4-0 run to take the 8-5 lead and cause Memphis to burn a timeout. The Tigers took advantage of the stoppage, firing off a 4-0 streak of their own, before the teams settled in, trading points until a 20-20 logjam force a UCA timeout. The Sugar Bears responded well out of the timeout, using three Memphis errors and kills from
Kellen Dunn and Tippett to lock up the match.
Elizabeth Armstrong handed out 11 assists in the set, as Dunn had five kills and Tippett added four.
On the night, Armstrong keyed the UCA attack, handing out 27 assists, while Tippett had a team-high 11 kills and Dunn chipped in with 10 of her own. Defensively, Allen and Nash each picked up five blocks, while
Emily Doss had a team-high nine digs. Allen was one of two Sugar Bears to hit over .300 on the night, tallying eight kills behind a .636 attack percentage.
"I've been really challenging Savanah to be that player, because I know that she can be," said Chatman. "I think she's finally starting to buy into the fact that she can be a point-scorer and that she can have an impact from anywhere on the floor."
Central Arkansas closes out the UCA Invitational tomorrow at 1:30, taking on UT-Martin.
"They're a team that's much improved from last year," said Chatman of the Skyhawks. "We played them last year, and then again in beach, and overall, all of their players are just more experienced. They're a scrappy team, they're feisty, and they play with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement. We're going to have to come out with a quicker start to set the tone for the match."
