Conway – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears and Little Rock Trojans met at the Farris Center on Thursday night, opening the Central Arkansas Invitational with the second round of the 2018-19 Governor's I-40 Showdown. The Trojans struck first, with a 25-13 first set win, before Central Arkansas responded with wins of 26-24 and 25-21. Little Rock would take the fourth 25-18 to force a decisive fifth set, which Central Arkansas managed to win 16-14.

After a fairly lop-sided first set that saw Little Rock (5-3) limit the Sugar Bears to an attack percentage of just .030 while hitting .370 to grab a 1-0 lead, the 316 fans in attendance were treated to a barnburner that featured two sets with extra points and a total of 10 ties and seven lead changes over the final four sets.

Central Arkansas (6-2) would open a small lead in the second set at 7-4, before Little Rock evened things at 12-12 on a kill from Mya Robinson. After a 5-1 UCA run, featuring three kills from senior Savanah Allen and an ace from senior Amanda Dimon opened things back up for the Bears, the Trojans would again battle back, eventually taking a 22-21 lead thanks to a four-point run. Little Rock would use a Central Arkansas error to go up 24-23 and force set point, before UCA got kills from seniors Haley Tippett and Kellen Dunn and a Trojan error to take the set and even the match.

The Sugar Bears continued to roll early in the third, building an 11-5 lead out of the gate to force an early stoppage from the Trojans, who used the break to build a 3-0 run and cut the lead to 11-8 before eventually pulling to within a point at 16-17. That would be as close at the Sugar Bears would allow in the set though, as a 4-1 UCA run opened things back up before a Little Rock attack error ended the set.

UCA again built a lead to open the fourth set, going up 9-4 before the Trojans returned fire, reeling off nine points in a row to take a 15-9 lead and force Central Arkansas head coach Jeni Jones Chatman to burn both of her timeouts. The Sugar Bears would cut the lead to one at two different points in the set, but were unable to retake the lead, sending the match to a fifth set.

The fifth appeared to be decided early, as Central Arkansas broke open a 9-4 lead, but Little Rock would claw back to even things up at 12-12. After two points from UCA, the Trojans again evened the match at 14-14, before the Sugar Bears got kills from Tippett and Allen to close things out.

Tippett turned in a dominant performance on the night, tallying her fourth double-double of the season with a match-high 24 kills and 19 digs, while senior Samantha Anderson added 18 kills and sophomore Bailey Waddington dished out 36 assists. On the defensive front, sophomore Emily Doss had 25 digs and Dimon had 10, while Allen pulled down three blocks.

The win sees Central Arkansas take a 4.5-1.5 lead in the Governor's I-40 Showdown, which opened with a 1-1 tie in women's soccer on August 17^th. Four more points will be up for grabs on Saturday, with both schools sending their men's and women's cross country teams into action at the UCA Cross Country Challenge, hosted by Central Arkansas at Beaverfork Lake.

The Sugar Bears return to action tomorrow night at 7:00 PM, taking on South Dakota to close out day two of the 2018 Central Arkansas Invitational.