CONWAY, Ark. – The University of Central Arkansas volleyball team welcomes Little Rock and Southeastern Louisiana to town for a slightly adjusted Central Arkansas Invitational. The Sugar Bears will then hold a standalone match against the Colorado State Rams.
UCA is coming off a challenging stretch to open the season, of which they come out on the other side of with a 1-3 record. UCA didn't have just one player step up and take over this past weekend, instead a fair few Sugar Bears contributed solid efforts. Charleston Tidwell was two kills from her career high against Mizzou, and Caylan Koons tallied 48 assists in the same match. Lilly Taylor tallied her career high in kills with 12 in the win over Illinois State.
The Little Rock Trojans make the trip up to Conway to play on Friday night. Little Rock dropped all three matches at the A-State Invitational to Arkansas State, North Alabama, and Louisiana Tech. Through three matches, freshman Bella Cherry leads the Trojans in kills with 19. Another freshman has been running the offensive attack for the Trojans in Dariana Valencia, who leads Little Rock in assists with 28. Last season the Sugar Bears won both matchups against the Trojans, including a win at Little Rock that sparked a seven-game winning streak. The Trojans have the overall series lead at 25-14, however, so the Sugar Bears will look to continue to settle the score and earn points in the Governors I-40 showdown.
The Southeastern Louisiana Lady Lions come in to Conway with a 1-2 record in their own tournament last weekend. The Lady Lions took a match against in-state foe Grambling, but lost to Washington and UTEP. Some players to watch for SLU include senior outside hitter Kailin Newsom, the team leader in kills with 40 through three matches. Junior setter Gracie Duplechein leads the team with 62 assists so far. Sitting second in kills and assists is junior Rachel Hartmann from Slidell, Louisiana who has 29 kills and 41 assists so far. The Sugar Bears are very familiar with SLU as UCA leads the series 30-1 over its old conference foe.
UCA will get another great opportunity in the early going with another standalone match, this time against the Colorado State Rams. The Rams opened the season with an impressive four-set win over No. 10 Kentucky. However, the Rams then dropped matches against No. 3 Stanford and Northern Colorado. The Rams have three players with over 30 kills on the season, Annie Sullivan with 37, Malaya Jones with 34, and Kennedy Stanford with 32. Emery Herman leads the Rams with 110 assists through the first three matches. Sunday's match will be the first ever meeting between the Sugar Bears and the Rams, so fans should be treated to a great match.
Due to Jackson State canceling, the schedule for this weekend has been shuffled around a bit. Little Rock and SLU will still play at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, September 1st. The Sugar Bears' opening match of the weekend will be on Friday, September 1st at 7:00 p.m. against Little Rock. The Sugar Bears then play Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday, September 2nd at 1:00 p.m. UCA closes things out on Sunday, September 3rd against Colorado State at 12:00 p.m. You can keep up with each UCA match this weekend on ESPN+, and as always, on Twitter at @UCAVball.
