CONWAY, Ark. – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears ended the regular season on the ultimate high note Saturday afternoon as they defeated the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders 3-1 on Senior Day for their seventh straight win. The win secured the No. 5 seed for Central Arkansas (16-13, 10-6 SLC) for the SLC Tournament as Houston Baptist lost to New Orleans and fell to 9-7 in SLC play.
 
Senior Abbie Harry shined on her special day as she led the Sugar Bears offense with a game-high 21 kills while sophomore Madi Bowles and junior Amari Mitchell added 11 and 10. Senior Elizabeth Armstrong also rose to the occasion at the net as she finished with a game-high 30 assists while junior Emily Doss did her thing defensively with a game-high 23 digs.
 
SET ONE – The first set laid the foundation for the match as the biggest set win was only by three points. After the first 20 points saw 9 ties, the Sugar Bears created the first separation of the day after a kill from freshman Alexis Stumbough and back-to-back Islander attack errors made it 18-14. Corpus Christi stayed composed through the chaos of the packed home crowd and delivered a 4-0 spurt to even it at 18-all. After the set saw four more ties over the next eight points, the Sugar Bears rode their home crowd and got two straight kills from redshirt-sophomore Ravin Rhodes and Stumbough along with an Islander attack error to win set one 25-22.
 
SET TWO – After seven ties occurred within the first 14 points, the Islanders took a four-point advantage after a 4-0 spurt made it 11-7. The Sugar Bears were able to pull within one at point 23 after a kill from Harry, but Corpus Christi ballooned their lead to five as a 6-2 response made it 19-14. Central Arkansas was able to make it interesting as a 6-3 run behind kills from redshirt-junior Amanda Beaton, Armstrong and Mitchell pulled them within two at 22-20, but a Sugar Bear attack error halted the run and the Islanders finished strong to win 25-22.
 
SET THREE – The third set saw 10 ties within the first 22 points before the Sugar Bears converted a mini 3-0 run off two straight Mitchell kills to grab the early 13-11 advantage. After the Islanders evened the score at 16-all, Central Arkansas created a 5-1 run behind two kills from Bowles to lead 21-17. The Islanders stayed poised and responded with a 4-1 run to pull within one at 22-21 and tied it three points later at 23-all. After Central Arkansas missed three chances to win the match, the fourth time was the charm as a Mitchell kill and Islander attack error awarded the Sugar Bears the 28-26 win and 2-1 match lead.
 
SET FOUR – The Islanders looked to be in control of the fourth set through point 20 as they held two separate 5+ leads and were sitting comfortably with a 13-7 lead midway through. The Sugar Bears briefly stopped the bleeding over the next seven points with a 6-1 run behind two kills from Harry to pull within one before the Islanders immediately regained a four-point lead with a 4-1 run to lead 18-14. Down 20-17, Central Arkansas flipped the script on the visiting team as Mitchell delivered two kills and a service ace to cap off a 4-1 spurt to tie it at 21-21. After a kill from Rhodes tied it four points later at 23-all, the Sugar Bears got an Islanders attack error and kill No. 21 from Harry to win 25-23 and take the match 3-1.
 
ASSOCIATE HEAD COACH JOHN NEWBERRY ON THE WIN
 
"We couldn't be prouder of how the conference season ended. These seniors went out with a phenomenal ending to their conference career. Corpus Christi has been such a dominant competitor within this conference and we knew that this was going to be a battle to the end.
 
Abbie had a stellar performance with 21 kills and Emily racked up 23 digs against a high-powered offense. Not only was Elizabeth setting some pheromonal balls today, but she was also stellar with her defense at the net.
 
Thank you to all the fans, family and friends that came out to support this team and these seniors. We hope that everybody can make it back for our conference tournament match next Friday."
 
UP NEXT
 
The red-hot Sugar Bears will open SLC Tournament play next Friday night at 6:30 p.m. as they await a coin flip from the conference office that will determine their first-round opponent between Northwestern State and the Islanders. The loser of the flip will face Central Arkansas and the match will take place in the Farris Center.