Stephen F. Austin
Central Arkansas
Ladyjacks Swept In Conway
11/7/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 7, 2009
CONWAY, Ark. - The Ladyjack volleyball team was solid offensively on Saturday, but Central Arkansas swung .330 and clinched no less than a share of the Southland Conference title with a 3-0 (25-22, 25-22, 25-19) win at the Prince Center.
SFA (19-12, 8-5 Southland) still remains in the top half of the league standings despite the loss while Central Arkansas (25-3, 14-0 Southland) and will have three shots at home next week to clinch its sixth consecutive 20-win season.
Mary Caitlin Bottles led SFA offensively for the second straight match with 11 kills on only 16 swings, hitting .562 with four blocks as well. But no other Ladyjack managed to get into double figures with Arielle Daron and Ashley Bailey next in line with eight and five kills apiece, respectively.
Chloe Smith led the way for the Sugar Bears with a match-high 16 kills as Central Arkansas was able to put up the second-highest attack percentage of any team against SFA this season.
It took a late rally from the Sugar Bears in the first set to escape with a win, getting three straight kills from Smith to go from a 19-20 deficit, to a 22-19 lead. SFA got nine combined kills from Arielle Daron and Mary Caitlin Bottles and swung .242 as a team, but Smith finished led the UCA offense that swung .351 with seven kills in the set.
UCA went wire-to-wire in the second set, jumping out to a 6-2 lead and building it to as much as seven points at 16-9 before SFA used kills from Daron, Bottles and Kelsey Owens on a 5-0 run to get back to within two and eventually tying it up at 17-17 on consecutive attack errors from UCA's Taylor Hammonds. But the Sugar Bears then got kills from five different players on seven of their next eight points to win the race to 25 and overcome SFA swinging .304 in the frame.
The teams went point for point to open the third set with SFA taking a slim two-point lead at 12-10 on a kill from Paloma Buckner and an ace from Bottles, but the Ladyjacks became their own worst enemy by handing the Sugar Bears four of their next seven points as UCA took a 17-15 lead and did not give it back. The Ladyjacks hit a match-low .184 in the set while UCA had its best frame of the day, hitting .342.
SFA closes out the regular season next week with three matches at home, beginning Tuesday when it hosts McNeese State at 7:00 p.m. That will be followed by matches with Nicholls on Thursday and Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday.
-SFA-
