Houston, Texas – The Central Arkansas Beach Bears will look to close out the 2018 season on a positive note this weekend, as they take part in the Southland Conference Showcase, hosted by Houston Baptist. The Showcase, which features the Southland Conference's five current beach volleyball programs, will be the first chance that fans have to see where the league will be heading as it transitions to a fully-sponsored beach volleyball conference over the next two seasons.

"It's been a good year with a good group," said UCA head coach Jeni Jones Chatman. "We got in one extra weekend of play this season, and we added one more ranked opponent, so I think we've had a really good schedule to prepare us for the Southland Showcase. I'm pleased that we were able to earn the number-one seed, but the teams in our conference are very good."

The Showcase will be broken up into two parts, with the five teams facing off on Friday to earn seeding in a double-elimination bracket that begins on Saturday and closes on Sunday. Central Arkansas, who enters the tournament with a 12-5 record, earned a bye in the first round of Friday's action, which sees the teams initially seeded based on winning percentage. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (9-8) and Houston Baptist (11-14) earned the second and third seeds for Friday's action, while New Orleans (4-16) and Abilene Christian (2-14) were ranked fourth and fifth.

"The jump that Texas A&M-Corpus Christi has made with their beach program from last year to this year is very significant, and for Houston Baptist to finish with the record they have after playing the schedule that they did is very impressive. This is the first year that we were able to play New Orleans, and I was very impressed with their program. We didn't get to see Abilene Christian this year, but I think that the weekend is going to be a battle."

Central Arkansas enters the weekend led by the pairing of senior Kristine Hjembo and freshman Colene Hamilton, who carry a record of 15-2 while playing at the threes (2-0), fours (10-1), and fives (3-1).

"Kris is a player that has a ton of experience in beach volleyball, and she's been such a great mentor for Colene," said Chatman. "The way the she communicates with Colene and the way that they problem-solve and discuss the game is better than any other pair that we have. I'm just so impressed with their ability to work together. And that's why they're so successful. They have a competitiveness and a want-to-win and they work so well together."

Hamilton and Hjembo are not the only pairing that has exhibited a flexibility in position this year, as Chatman as played at least two pairs at every slot this season, and every pair that has played at least five matches together has seen action in at least two slots. Despite this constant movement, Central Arkansas enter the weekend with four pair tallying double-digit wins, a feat the Chatman attributes to the growth her players have experienced in the program's second season.

"It's something that's a bit different than last year, and some of it has been due to injury and some of it has been due to an attempt to figure out what's going to be the best match-up," said Chatman. "Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't. One of the things that I think we've grown with in our program, is our mentality and how we face tough situations. At the beginning of the season, when it would get tough, we weren't in the right mentality, but as we've grown this season, we've learned how to put ourselves into the right mentality to be successful."

Central Arkansas opened the weekend at 1:00 PM on Friday afternoon, playing the winner of the day's first match between the Privateer and Wildcats. The winner will then move on to play either HBU or TAMUCC at 5:00 PM, while the loser will play at 7:00 PM. Play on both Saturday and Sunday will begin at 9:00 PM and will follow a traditional double-elimination bracket format, based on the seeds following Friday's results.

While the Showcase isn't an official conference tournament, Chatman and the Sugar Bears are excited about what it represents, and what it would mean to win.

"Regardless of it being called the conference tournament or not, our goal is to go in and win," said Chatman. "That was our goal last weekend, and it's our goal every weekend. I don't think the expectations are any different this weekend. We know we're facing some difficult teams, and playing the same teams over three teams is always tough, but we want to win."