Southland Volleyball Report - Sept. 4
Centenary 0 at Central Arkansas 3
CONWAY, Ark. - The opening match of the UCA Classic went off without a hitch, as the Central Arkansas Sugar Bears downed Centenary 25-14, 25-7, 25-16 at the Prince Center on Thursday night. UCA (2-2) need just an hour and seven minutes to put away the Ladies (0-5) in front of 333 fans, the sixth largest crowd in Prince Center history.
In the first set, the Sugar Bears and Centenary were tied at 9-9, but UCA went on a 16-5 run to end the game. UCA outhit the Ladies .344 to .069 in the frame. Junior outside hitter Evaree Franklin led Central Arkansas with four kills and senior libero Kelly Bence racked up eight kills.
UCA led 7-5 early in the second, but two aces from junior defensive specialist Jennifer Hauskey and excellent serving by sophomore middle blocker Chloe Smith led the Sugar Bears on a 18-2 rally, to win the game 25-7. UCA excelled again on offense by connecting on 14 kills with a .417 hitting percentage, while Centenary struggled with just two kills and a -.150 percentage.
The Purple and Gray were even better in the third set as they hit .480 with 15 kills. The offensive attack was led by freshman outside hitter Jessica Hays with four kills.
For the match, the Sugar Bears hit .407 on 44 kills and just 11 errors. The hitting percentage is the ninth-highest in school history. The Ladies struggled, hitting -.014 on 14 kills and 15 erros.
Smith led the way with 10 kills and hit .438 with three blocks. Hays and senior middle blocker Emily Gordon each added eight kills. Junior setter Robyn Smith had 36 assists and Hauskey finished with three aces and five digs.
Bence, from Vista, Calif., came up with 14 digs and moved into third on UCA's career digs list. She now has 1,591 for her career, passing UCA Sports Hall of Fame inductee Jennifer McClendon.
The Sugar Bears will face Mississippi Valley State at 6 p.m. on Friday.
Lamar 0 at Wichita State 3
WICHITA, Kan. ? The Lamar University volleyball team dropped a 3-0 decision to the No. 22 team in the Country Wichita State in their opening match of the Best Western Shocker Volleyball Classic at Charles Koch Arena.
The Shockers made their mark early in the match with a strong statement, handing LU a 25-9 loss to take a 1-0 lead. Lamar put up a fight in game two, going toe-to-toe with Wichita State for the majority of the game. The Shockers however were able to pull away from a 19-19 tie to claim game two 25-20.
Trialing 2-0 in the match, the Lady Cards could not hold off the WSU attack in game three and fell 25-15 to finish the match.
Ashley Todd passed out 20 assists for the Lady Cards while Shalayne Blythe led the offense with six kills. Andrea Hamilton led the Lamar defense with seven digs while Lauren Holdorff registered three blocks.
The loss drops Lamar’s record to 1-2 on the year while Wichita State improves to 5-0 on the year with the victory. The Lady Cardinals will be back on the court on Friday afternoon at 12 p.m. when they take on Coastal Carolina. They will close out Friday’s action immediately following with a 4:30 showdown against Cal State Bakersfield.