Central Arkansas Rallies to Knock Off Lamar in Southland Volleyball Quarterfinals
CONWAY, Ark. - In the nightcap of Friday night's quarterfinal matchups, No. 4 seed Central Arkansas eliminated No. 5 seed Lamar, 3-1 (15-15, 26-24, 25-22, 25-11), in the 2011 Southland Conference Volleyball Tournament at the Farris Center in Conway, Ark. The Sugar Bears moves to 17-14 on the year while the Lady Cardinals fall to 11-21.
After trailing 8-10, the Lady Cardinals closed on a 17-5 run to win the opening set, 25-15. Lamar junior Wendy Krell recorded three kills and a .400 hitting percentage in the set, and she also added two block assists. Defensively, the Lady Cardinals were led by junior Alex Morford and freshman Megan Schwartz, both of whom had three kills each. Freshman Scout Brooks led the Sugar Bears' offensive charge with four kills.
UCA rallied late in the second set to even the match with a 26-24 set win. The Sugar Bears trailed 21-23 before closing out the set on a 5-1 run. Brooks and freshman Alicia Dittrich each contributed with five kills apiece in the set while sophomore Marissa Collins had 14 assists, two kills, two digs and one block assist for UCA. Krell added six more kills for Lamar in the set, and Morford tallied 12 assists and three kills.
After trailing most of the third set, UCA finally tied it at 17-17 and then took the lead for good at 19-18 on the way to a 25-22 win. Sophomore Jessica Nagy recorded a .500 hitting percentage in the set with eight kills for the Sugar Bears. Collins added 11 assists and six sigs for UCA. Krell once again led the Lady Cardinals in kills with five in the set. She also added two digs and one block assist.
The fourth set belonged to UCA from the start after the Sugar Bears jumped out to a 7-1 lead and never trailed on the way to a 25-11 win. After Lamar closed the set to as close as 10-7, UCA used a 12-1 run to separate itself and win the match.
For the match, Collins recorded a double-double for UCA with 43 assists and 10 digs. Brooks' 15 digs led the Sugar Bears on the attack, and Curl's 15 digs led the team on the defensive end. Lamar was led by Krell's 15 digs and Schwartz's 18 digs.
UCA advances to the semifinals to face top-seeded Texas State, tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. In the only time the two teams met this season, Texas State won, 3-1, on Oct. 22. The match will be streamed live on SLC NOW on the Southland Conference website, southland.org.
Postgame quotes
Central Arkansas head coach David McFatrich
On the intensity level...
"I think the intensity followed some adjustments we made. Sometimes the intensity doesn't come first. They [Lamar] played a great first game and were hitting on all cylinders. We made a couple of adjustments to their attack and serve and once we got some stops our intensity rose."
On the effort of Cristin Curl...
"Players like Curl are rare and UCA staff, faculty and fans have been able to enjoy her for four years. We've been blessed to have her around. No one has a bigger heart than Curl and that was evident tonight."
On offensive production...
"We got pretty good production distribution. Normally it's one or two players that carry us, but today I felt like we had four attackers that did really well. It was great production from four players and we need that type of set distribution."
On the fourth set...
"We played great. We had an answer for everything they did. We got going and they'd score a point and we'd score four more. Our girls needed that."
Crowd and Texas State...
"We had a great turnout tonight. Looking forward to the match tomorrow. Texas State is very good, very well coached-thy are good at a lot of positions but we're excited to play and we're looking forward to it."
Lamar head coach Justin Gilbert
"I thought we had all the momentum after Game 1 and 2, but then we just slowly let it get away from us in the third. There was a point we had three service errors in a row and after that, we just didn't fight hard enough for it.
I thought coming in we had an advantage because we were playing well. And it showed in the first game. I thought we were in control. But in the third, we struggled on serves and let them get the momentum. And them in the fourth, I don't think we really had much fight in us. And give their team and David (McFatrich) credit, they took advantage once they got the momentum."