Conway – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears closed out play at the UCA Classic on Saturday afternoon, facing off with the UCF Knights. The Sugar Bears struggled offensively on the day, hitting just .127 to suffer their first loss of the season, falling 25-18, 25-23, 20-25, 25-19.

Neither side was able to take a lead larger than two points for the majority of the set, until UCF (4-5) got a 3-0 run to take a 20-17 lead and force a Central Arkansas (8-1) timeout. The Sugar Bears proved unable to respond out of the stoppage, getting just one more point to drop the set. The Sugar Bears, who hit .000 in the set, got four kills from Haley Tippett and three digs each from Amanda Dimon and Emily Doss.

Central Arkansas would take a four-point lead in the second set, building an 11-7 lead to open things up, before the Knights got a five point streak to take a 12-11 lead. The
Sugar Bears would retake the lead at 16-13, forcing a stoppage from UCF, before pushing it to 20-16 to cause the Knights to take their second timeout of the set. UCF would even the set up at 21-21 and the Sugar Bears would take a timeout of their own, but they were unable to stop UCF's momentum, finding themselves trailing by two sets for the first time this season. Samantha Anderson and Megan Nash each had three kills in the set, and Tippett had five digs.

The third set saw the Knights build a 5-4 lead before the Sugar Bears responded with five straight points to take a 9-5 lead and take control of the set. UCF would cut the UCA lead to two points at 22-20, but that would be as close as they could get, with the Sugar Bears wrapping up the set to close the gap to 2-1 in the match. Tippett and Anderson led the way with four kills each, and Abbie Harry had three while Elizabeth Armstrong handed out 13 assists.

Central Arkansas was unable to capitalize on the momentum from the third set, finding themselves in an 8-2 hole to open the fourth set. The Sugar Bears would pull to within two points at 10-8 and would again cut it to two points at 17-15, but would prove unable to pull any closer, dropping the set and taking a loss for the first this season. Nash and Harry each picked up five kills in the set, while Doss added five digs.  

"Give credit to UCF for putting us the position we were in, but I don't think we helped ourselves in a lot of areas that we could have," said UCA head coach Jeni Jone Chatman. "That was disappointing to see, but we'll look at the film and get back to the drawing board and get better."

For the match, Anderson led the Central Arkansas offense with 11 kills , and Tippett and Nash each added 10 kills. Armstrong keyed the UCA offense, passing out a match-high 41 assists. Defensively Doss had 19 digs, and Tippett and Nash each completed the double-double by tallying 14 and 10 digs, respectively. At the net, Savanah Allen and
Nash each had four blocks, while Kellen Dunn and Armstrong each added three.

With UCA, UCF, and Arkansas State all finishing the Classic with identical 2-1 records and creating a logjam due to knocking each other off in head-to-head play by matching 3-1 scores, first place was decided by total points scored in the tournament. As such, UCF earned first place with 256 points scored, UCA was awarded second place with 252 points, and ASU took third with 250 points.

Following the match, Anderson and Harry earned All-Tournament honors. Anderson led the Sugar Bears' attack on the weekend, averaging a team-high 3.90 kills and hitting .390 with 0.60 blocks, while Harry added 3.00 kills per set, hitting .259 and chipping in six digs, three blocks, an assist, and an ace.

"Megan has always been our serving middle, she does a great job of being a defensive player after she serves," said Chatman of Nash, who has upped her digs per set from 0.88 last season to 1.36 this year. "And when you add the beach season that she did, she's in a position where she can be defensive-minded and she can do first contact. I have no hesitation keeping her in the back row because she's a play-maker and I know I'll get incredible effort out of her."

Central Arkansas hits the road next weekend, closing out non-conference play at the Golden Eagle Classic, hosted by Oral Roberts. UCA will face off with Wyoming at 5:00 PM on Friday, before battling the Golden Eagles at 11:00 AM Saturday and Tulsa at 5:00 PM Saturday afternoon.

"The season is very long, and our goal, just like everybody, is to be playing in December," said Chatman of how the Sugar Bears will rebound from their first loss of the season. "It's an incredibly special season where you can go undefeated. We put together the schedule that we have in order to challenge us, and to prepare us not only for conference play, but for playing in December as well. Playing teams like Arkansas State and UCF, and the teams that we'll play next weekend, is for a reason. We knew this schedule would be challenging. It is our first loss, yes, but at the end of the day, it's not any different from a win. We'll look at the film, and we'll find the areas that we need to improve, and we'll work on them throughout the week. Some things looked good the last few days, and some things need some work, but that happens throughout the season."