Conway – 24 hours after finding themselves in a five-set battle to open the 2018 Central Arkansas Invitational, the Central Arkansas Sugar Bears returned to action at the Farris Center, this time facing off with the South Dakota Coyotes. The Sugar Bears made short work of the Coyotes, picking up a 25-17, 25-22, 25-22 sweep.
South Dakota (5-2) would take the first five points of the match, before a block from
Amari Mitchell and
Samantha Anderson put UCA on a 6-1 run and cut the Coyote lead to 12-11. Central Arkansas (7-2) would eventually push the run to 15-4 to take a 20-14 lead and put the set out of reach. USD would get a pair of point to cut it to 20-16, before the Sugar Bears closed it out with a 5-1 run. UCA would hit .444 for the set, racking up 14 kills and just a pair of errors on 27 attack attempts.
Central Arkansas would build an 8-4 lead to open the second set, before the Coyotes reeled off seven straight points to take an 11-8 lead. The Sugar Bears responded in kind though, taking the next six points to retake the lead before using another 5-1 run to take a 19-14 lead. The Coyotes would battle back, eventually cutting the UCA lead to 24-22, before a kill from senior
Haley Tippett secured the set for the Sugar Bears. Tippett turned in six kills in the set, while junior
Abbie Harry added four as Central Arkansas hit .333.
The third set followed the same pattern as the second, with Central Arkansas building an 11-7 lead and USD battling back to even things at 14-14, before the Sugar Bears built the advantage back out to 21-16. A 4-1 run from South Dakota would cut the lead to two points, at 22-20, but the Sugar Bears were able to trade points with the Coyotes the rest of the way to close out the match.
On the night, the Sugar Bears were led by Tipett's match-high 14 kills. Harry was the only other Sugar Bears to tally double-figure kills on the night, with 10, while junior
Elizabeth Armstrong handed out a match-high 34 assists and dug 10 attacks.
The Sugar Bears close out the weekend tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 PM, taking on Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
