THIBODAUX, La. – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears continued their hot play on Thursday night as they swept the Nicholls Colonels (10-12, 4-7 SLC) 3-0 to move into seventh in the SLC standings. The Sugar Bears (11-13, 5-6 SLC) turned in an electric offensive performance as they converted 46 kills on only 10 errors with a scorching .371 hitting percentage.  
 
Senior Abbie Harry continued to shine for Central Arkansas as she had a match-high 17 kills while junior Amari Mitchell converted 9. Junior Bailey Waddington led in sharing with 19 assists while senior Rayna Jefferis led the back line with 13 digs.
 
SET ONE – The Colonels were the hot team to start the night as a 6-2 home team run gave them the 13-9 lead early. The Sugar Bears clawed back at point 25 as three straight kills from Mitchell, senior Elizabeth Armstrong and Harry pulled them within one at 14-13. After a Nicholls kill tied it at 20-all late, Central Arkansas rode the arms of Mitchell and Harry as both turned in two kills that created a 5-0 spurt to win set one 25-20.
 
SET TWO – After the first 20 points saw a 10-10 tie, the Colonels helped reward the Sugar Bears the first separation of set two as three straight Nicholls errors and two Harry kills made it 16-11 Central Arkansas. Nicholls tried to fight back at point 24 as a service ace and kill pulled them within three, but the Sugar Bears got back-to-back kills from Stumbough and Harry to lead comfortably at 21-16. After the home team delivered a kill five points later to make it 23-19, Central Arkansas went up 2-0 as Armstrong and redshirt-sophomore Ravin Rhodes delivered kills to win 25-20.
 
SET THREE – The Sugar Bears wasted no time in jumping out to an early set three lead as four Colonel errors gave the visiting team the 6-1 lead. Although Nicholls would pull within four after a kill made it 9-5, Central Arkansas was not phased as they took five of the next seven points and cruised to an easy 25-17 win to sweep the Colonels.
 
ASSOCIATE HEAD COACH MARISSA COLLINS ON THE WIN
 
"We are definitely pleased with our performance tonight. Our focus has been increasing our efficiency by decreasing our errors, and we felt that we achieved that tonight.
 
Abbie Harry was huge in her attacking from the outside and our middles played a big role as well.
 
I'm very happy with our win tonight and we plan to keep battling our way to the top."
 
UP NEXT
 
The Sugar Bears will look to jump into sixth place in the SLC on Saturday morning as they will face the Lady Lions of Southeastern Louisiana at 11 a.m.