CONWAY, Ark. - After an unorthodox fall season, the Sugar Bears are back and ready to prove their worth as the spring season dawns the start of conference play.
It has been a wacky fall for the NCAA, with many changes and unexpected bumps in the road. The University of Central Arkansas volleyball program has felt all of those bumps as they had to postpone nearly 80% of their fall season due to the pandemic. However, it's a new dawn as the Sugar Bears begin their journey towards Southland Conference gold in their final Southland volleyball season.
UCA begins their final Southland stretch this week by traveling to Sam Houston State University on Tuesday and Houston Baptist University on Thursday. These contests seem to provide early tests for the Sugar Bears as Sam Houston was picked second and Houston Baptist was picked fifth in the preseason conference poll.
These two initial tests will provide a baseline for UCA as they look to get back to action after a 2-3 fall season. In the fall portion of the season, the Sugar Bears tested out many different scenarios as they allowed many student-athletes to get in-game action. Regardless of the plan, many familiar names continued to excel during the initial fall stretch. The trio of junior Lexi Miller, senior Amanda Beaton and junior Madi Bowles proved lethal as they combined for a total of 175.5 points. On the defensive end, senior Emily Doss provided the foundation with 66 digs, and junior Ravin Rhodes brought the fire with 11 blocks.
Sam Houston brings their own set of firepower to the first matchup as they had three student-athletes selected to the preseason Southland Conference list. The Bearkats are led by junior outside hitter Breanne Chausse, senior outside hitter Ashley Lewis and sophomore outside hitter Catherine Krieger. This early test will prove essential to the remainder of the season as Sam Houston finished 14-2 in the SLC last season and grabbed the No. 2 spot in the standings.
Houston Baptist also has their set of explosive offensive players as they had two players listed on the preseason list. Senior outside hitter Mikayla Vivens and senior setter Morgan Dewyer prove to be a dynamic connection this season for the Huskies. Houston Baptist finished their season last year 9-7 in SLC play, leading to a sixth-place finish in the conference.
The Sugar Bears travel to Sam Houston tomorrow as the matchup is set for 6:30 p.m. Following that, UCA will continue the road stretch as they head to Houston to take on Houston Baptist at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Quote from coach John Newberry:
"We are very ready and prepared to compete against Sam Houston and Houston Baptist. Both teams were ranked in the top-five for preseason polls and very deserving of their rankings. Starting off the conference season without game experience is very unique. It'll be interesting to find out how prepared we actually are."
"Sam Houston is bringing in 11 returners with game experience. I think we match up very well with this team. They play with a lot of emotion and are typically a very tough defensive team."
"Houston Baptist has several great returners along with a strong freshman class. They also had a handful of matches in the fall season. There's a lot of confidence on our side knowing that we have the personnel to win. Our game plan is simple, don't allow ourselves to get down.
