Beaumont, Texas – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears closed out a short, two-match road trip on Saturday, heading to Beaumont, Texas to take on the Lamar Cardinals. The Sugar Bears earned their eighth sweep of the season, defeating the Cardinals 25-20, 25-22, 25-23.
The first set saw the teams work to a 5-5 tie, before the Sugar Bears (12-2, 1-1 SLC) went on a 6-3 run to open up an 11-8 lead and force a timeout from Lamar (2-10, 0-2 SLC).
The Cardinals would cut the lead to two points at 14-12, before the Sugar Bears pushed it out to 19-13 and then cruised to a 25-20 set win and a 1-0 lead in the match. UCA hit .312 as a team in the set and got four kills from both
Haley Tippett and
Abbie Harry.
Lamar took a 6-2 lead to open the second set, before the Sugar Bears battled back to take an 11-9 lead. The Cardinals would get a 5-1 run to retake the lead at 14-12 but UCA would rebound again taking a 17-15 lead to cause the Cardinals to take another timeout. The teams would trade points the rest of the way, with the Sugar Bears taking a 2-0 lead into the break with a 25-22 win in the set. Tippett again paced the UCA attack, hitting .385 with six kills and adding four digs, while
Megan Nash had four kills and a pair of blocks.
Central Arkansas would take the early lead in the third set, building a slim 6-4 lead before a 4-0 Cardinal run saw Lamar go up 8-6. LU would push the lead to four points at 15-11 to cause a timeout from the Sugar Bears. UCA would again storm back, using a 6-1 run to take a 17-16 lead. The battle would continue, with Lamar taking 21-19 lead, before UCA sandwiched a ball-handling error from LU with kills from Nash and
Kellen Dunn to take a 22-21 lead. Lamar would even the set at 22-22, before a 3-1 run from the Sugar Bears gave UCA the 25-23 set win and the match sweep. Central Arkansas hit a red-hot .418 for the set, as
Elizabeth Armstrong handed out 14 assists. Tippett added five kills to her tally, while Nash and Dunn each picked up four kills.
For the match, Tippett collected her fourth double-double of the season, turning in 15 kills, 12 digs, three blocks, and two aces, while Nash had nine kills, five blocks, and four digs, while Anderson handed out 35 assists and had four digs and a block.
Emily Doss tallied a match-high 14 digs.
The Sugar Bears return to action on Monday, hosting Houston Baptist at the Prince Center at 7:00 PM.
