JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The University of Central Arkansas beach volleyball team sees its season come to a close with losses in the ASUN Tournament to No. 1 seed Stetson and No. 5 seed Jacksonville.

UCA 0 Stetson 5

The inaugural meeting of the Bears and Hatters would not go the way of the Bears. The No. 18 team in the nation and top-seeded Hatters were battle tested, and the Bears were not going to be able to sneak up on them. 10 of Stetson's losses were to nationally ranked opponents, and the Hatters' top two tandems had 20 wins apiece, and on Friday morning, it showed.

Kayla Cook and Payton Sproule made things interesting with the No. 4 pair of Gauthier and Weintraub but were unable to secure a set victory. The rest of the Bears' tandems were also shut out and UCA had to look forward to facing Jacksonville later in the day.

UCA 1 JU 4

The Bears and Dolphins squared off for the second time, with the first resulting in a big Bear win in the ASUN Tournament in 2022. This time, though, the Dolphins were able to get the upper hand, getting ahead early and often.

Cook and Sproule continued their great day despite losing the first set. The pair rallied to take the second set and then the third by a 15-8 score to put UCA on the board. Despite their efforts, Julia Oravec and Anna Linksey were not able to come up with a win. The pair took Eckhardt and Szyszkiewicz to the brink in the first set, but the Jacksonville pair eventually came out on top with a 22-20 win and a 21-14 win in the second set to put some icing on the cake for the Dolpins.

UCA finishes Head Coach Cassidi Stabile's first season at 8-20, despite coming out of the gates at 1-7. UCA continued to see improvement as the season went along, especially from the younger players like Madelyn White, Grace Austin, and Linskey.