Conway – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears continued play in the UCA Classic on Friday, playing host to the Southern University Lady Jaguars. The Sugar Bears kept their record perfect, holding the Lady Jaguars to an .060 attack percentage while picking up the 25-19, 25-11, 25-17 sweep.
Central Arkansas (8-0) found itself trailing early in the first set, digging a 10-6 hole before eventually battling back to take a 17-15 lead. Leading 21-19, the Sugar Bears closed out the set with a kill from
Kellen Dunn, a pair of Southern (0-5) attack errors, and an ace from Dunn. UCA got five kills from Dunn and four from
Samantha Anderson as
Elizabeth Armstrong handed out six assists and
Bailey Waddington added five.
"Southern came out on fire and I think it took us a set to figure out how to work things out while we had a mix of starters and non-starters on the floor," said UCA head coach Jeni Jones Chatman. "It's something we do in the gym for practice every day, so it's just important for us to make sure that everybody keeps their communication and organization up."
The Sugar Bears got off to a quicker start in the second set, building a 7-0 lead to force a timeout from the Lady Jags. UCA would push the lead to 12-1 and never look back, hitting a red-hot .524 to extend the match lead to 2-0.
Haley Tippett had five kills in the set and Amanda Beaton had four, while Waddington picked up 10 assists.
Central Arkansas opened the third set with a 7-1 run before the Lady Jags cut it to 7-5, but a quick 5-0 run, highlighted by an ace from
Emily Doss and kills from
Savanah Allen,
Amari Mitchell, and Tippett cut off the rally attempt and allowed the Sugar Bears to cruise to their sixth sweep of the season. Beaton and Tippett each added three kills to their tally in the set, and Doss chipped in with an ace and five digs.
As a team, Central Arkansas hit .338 on the night, picking up 41 kills on just 80 attempts. Tippett led the way offensively for the Sugar Bears with a match-high 10 kills and Beaton and Dunn each added seven, while Waddington marked her first collegiate start with a match-high 22 assists. On the defensive front, Doss dug a match-high 12 attacks and Megan Nash had a pair of blocks.
"I think a big part of our efficiency tonight was due to our setters," said Chatman. "Working to get our hitters into one-on-one situations is something that we spend a lot of time working on, hopefully seeing the movement on the other side of the net and also just knowing other teams' plans of attack. I thought that Bailey did a great job tonight. She's very solid with us day-to-day in practice, so I had no hesitation with starting her. Sometimes with the setter position that can backfire and hurt you, because that's a position that touches the ball more than anyone else on the floor. But we have a lot of confidence in Bailey because we see her in practice every day and she brings it every day."
Central Arkansas closes out the weekend tomorrow afternoon, taking on Central Florida at 12:30 PM.
"We need to have a much faster start, and we have to be the more disciplined team," said Chatman. "Central Florida has attackers all over the floor, they run a six-two offense, which means they always have three attackers in the front row, and they're a very good, well-coached team and we're going to have to play our best to do something good."
