Conway – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears open the 2018 campaign this weekend, looking to build on a 2017 season that saw them make their third NCAA Tournament appearance in the last six seasons. The Sugar Bears will start things off against Davidson at 6:00 PM Friday night, before taking on William & Mary at 9:00 AM Saturday morning and Marist at 3:00 PM Saturday afternoon.

Central Arkansas will have no shortage of firepower this season, as they return 83.5% of their kills from last season, led by 2017 Southland Conference Player of the Year Samantha Anderson, who was the only player to rank in the top-ten in the SLC in both kills (6^th, 3.29/set) and hitting percentage (4^th, .325). She is joined by Haley Tippett (2.60 kills/set), Abbie Harry (2.75 k/s), Amanda Beaton (2.22 k/s), and Kellen Dunn (1.58 k/s) in a group that head coach Jeni Jones Chatman expects to provide a variety of looks for the Sugar Bears throughout the season.

"Being able to return a player like Samantha is huge," said Chatman. "Because of the depth that we have on our roster, I don't feel like we're going to be a one- or two-hitter show like we were at times last year. I think we have enough depth in our attackers to show that we can score across the court, whether it's three across the front row, two across the front and one in back, or whatever. That's not something that we always had last year, and I think it's something that we'll have more of this season."

The one hole the Sugar Bears must fill is in the middle, where the graduation of three-time All-Southland Conference First Team selection Megan Nash leaves a question mark at the middle blocker position. Chatman will be able to turn to senior Savanah Allen, who, despite missing time due to injury last season, still ranked fifth on the team with 122 total kills (1.22/s) and was one of nine players in the Southland Conference to average at least 1.00 blocks per set. She will be joined by sophomore Amari Mitchell and redshirt freshman Ravin Rhodes in the middle of the Central Arkansas rotation.

"Savanah has learned to become just as rangy as Megan was," said Chatman. "I'm really excited to see her develop in her blocking. Blocking is a lot like defense, there is sequencing and eye-reading, but at the end of the day it comes down to effort, and I think that's an area where Savanah has really turned the page. Ravin and Amari are both huge over the net. They aren't, obviously, as experienced as Savanah, but getting to play in our gym every day over the past year, they're ready to take the floor and do what we need them to do."

Leading the Sugar Bears on the court is junior Elizabeth Armstrong, who earned All-SLC Second Team honors last year after leading the Southland with 1,213 total kills (SLC-best 10.37/set) while helping UCA to a league-high 1,612 kills and a .248 hitting percentage.

"The setter is like the quarterback, the hitter has to know that the setter has confidence in them, and EB is so good at that. We were one of the top attacking teams in the conference last season, and we know what we look like with EB on the floor. But Bailey Waddington has had a breakout spring as far as her rapport with our hitters and her place in our program."

Defensively, Central Arkansas will look to the trio of Emily Doss, Amanda Dimon, and Rayna Jefferis on the back row, a group that combined for 7.52 digs per set and added 0.73 aces while helping the Sugar Bears increase their reception percentage from .932 to .953 and drop their reception errors per set from 1.3 to 0.9.

"Right now Emily is showing some really good things defensively and with her passing stats, but Amanda is going to find her way onto the floor as well," said Chatman. "And then Rayna is the type of player that, she's always been good defensively and she's taken that defensive ability to another level, but it's always been her passing that she's struggled with and she's definitely stepped that up as well."

Chatman has also welcomed two new players to her squad this year, in right side Madi Bowles and outside hitter Lexi Miller. While both are just freshman, Chatman was quick to point out that they have already made an impact, saying, "Madi is doing a great job; offensively she can hang right now. Blocking, there are some things that she needs to get better at, but from the time she got here to today, she's already lightyears ahead. And Lexi is someone that physically can do some huge things for us, but she needs adjust to the mental side of the college game."

Central Arkansas will open the season with three games at Davidson this weekend, before heading to Martin, Tennessee next weekend to take part in the Skyhawk Invitational, where they will face off with UT Martin (August 30^th, 6:00 PM), UAB (August 31^st, 12:00 PM), Memphis (September 1^st, 11:00 AM), and Florida A&M (September 1^st, 3:00 PM). The Sugar Bears then return home to open the home portion of their schedule with the Central Arkansas Invitational at the Farris Center. UCA will square off with Little Rock (September 6^th, 7:00 PM) in the second meeting of the 2018-19 Governor's I-40 Showdown, while also taking on South Dakota (September 7^th, 7:00 PM) and Arkansas-Pine Bluff (September 8^th, 1:00 PM).

"We always try to play a tournament close to home for one of our players," said Chatman of her team's non-conference schedule. "Kellen Dunn is originally from Austin, Texas, and we haven't been able to play down there, but her parents moved to Davidson, where I know the head coach, so it really worked out well from that standpoint. But we also tried, each weekend, to build and build each week and put us in a position as we start conference play to succeed."