Tulsa, Oklahoma – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears looked to continue the hot start to their season on Saturday, as they faced off with the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles and the Tulsa Golden Hurricane on the second day of the ORU Invitational. The Sugar Bears did just that sweeping the Golden Eagles by a final tally of 25-15, 25-17, 25-21, before outlasting TU 25-19, 17-25, 25-14, 22-25, 15-11.

Oral Roberts (3-8) grabbed an early 6-3 lead to open the match, before the Sugar Bears took control, evening things at 11-11 before reeling off five straight points to take a 16-11 lead and force a timeout from ORU. The Golden Eagles would take the first two points out of the stoppage, but kills from Haley Tippett and Elizabeth Armstrong would start a 9-2 run to end the set. The Sugar Bears hit .341 for the set and got five kills and a .357 attack percentage from Tippett.

The second set saw the Sugar Bears take a 6-3 lead and it was ORU's turn to battle back, tying the set at 7-7. The Sugar Bears worked their way to a 13-11 lead, before a 5-0 streak pushed it to 18-11. ORU would take three points in a row to pull to within four points, but that would be as close as they could make it, as UCA cruised to the 2-0 lead. Tippett led the Sugar Bears with five digs in the set, while Abbie Harry hit .375 and had a team-high four kills.

The Sugar Bears spent the early portion of the third set chasing ORU, with the Golden Eagles taking a two-point lead four times and UCA evening the match up each time. Trailing 13-12, the Sugar Bears would take eight of the next 10 points to claim a 20-15 lead and create some distance in the match. ORU would cut it to 21-18, but the Sugar Bears would get kills from Tippett and Megan Nash to fight off the rally. Armstrong would hand out 12 assists in the set, as UCA got five kills from Tippett and three each from Nash and Savanah Allen.

For the match, Central Arkansas outhit Oral Roberts .288 to .150, marking the ninth time in 11 matches that the Sugar Bears have held their opponents' hitting percentage under .200. Tippett was a jack-of-all-trades on the day, leading the Sugar Bears with 12 kills while completing her third double-double of the season with 10 digs and adding three aces, while Nash added eight kills and four blocks, and Allen had four kills and five blocks. Armtstrong keyed the UCA attack with a match-high 34 assists, while defensively, Emily Doss had a match-high 15 digs.

The day's second match saw UCA and Tulsa (6-6) trading leads early, until the Sugar Bears took control at 10-8. From there UCA never let Golden Hurricane closer than two points, rolling to the 25-19 win. The Sugar Bears got six kills each from Tippett and Harry, as Armstrong passed out 17 assists.

TU controlled the second set, with the Sugar Bears leading just once at 2-1. From there the Golden Hurricane would pull away, taking the second set 25-17. Anderson led the way in the set, tallying seven kills and hitting .462.

UCA took a 9-5 lead to open the third set, and pushed that edge to 14-9 to force a timeout from TU. The Golden Hurricane would prove unable to cut it to less than four, as the Sugar Bears took the set 25-14 behind a .391 attack percentage. Anderson and Nash each had three kills, while Doss had a pair of aces.

The Sugar Bears opened the fourth set in control, grabbing a 7-4 lead, and pushing the advantage to 11-7, before Tulsa stormed back, taking a 14-13 lead to force a timeout from UCA. The stoppage looked to have worked, with UCA retaking the lead at 17-16, but a 5-0 TU run put the Golden Hurricane up for good, as they would tie the match at 2-2 with a 25-22 set win. Armstrong added 10 assists in the set and picked up five digs.

Central Arkansas opened the decisive set by taking a 5-2 lead and extended it to 10-4, causing a timeout from TU. The Golden Hurricane took the next four points, and UCA responded with a timeout of its own. The teams would trade points over the remainder of set, with the Sugar Bears wrapping up the win with a 15-11 set victory. Armstrong had 10 assists in the set, while Harry had four kills.

For the match, Armstrong had a career-high 58 assists as UCA got double-digit kills from Anderson (17), Harry (16), Nash (15), and Tippett (12). Defensively, Armstrong completed the double-double with 10 digs, while Doss had 16 and Rayna Jefferis had 12.

Following the match, a trio of Sugar Bears were named All-Tournament, with Nash and Anderson being named to the All-Tournament Team and Armstrong was named Tournament MVP. Nash hit .293 for the weekend and averaged 2.67 kills, 1.00 blocks, and 0.53 digs, and 0.50 aces, while Anderson hit .325 and led the Sugar Bears with 3.25 kills per set to go with 0.67 blocks and 0.42 digs. Armstrong handed out 11.0 assists while also averaging 1.58 digs, 0.83 kills, and 0.67 blocks.

Central Arkansas returns to action on Thursday, traveling to Nacogdoches, Texas to open Southland Conference play at Stephen F. Austin. The match is set to  begin at 6:30 PM.