Volleyball in home stretch

The Sugar Bear volleyball team (15-15, 5-7) is nearing the end of an eight-game homestand. Home has been a good place for the Sugar Bears this season.



“We’ve made it a pretty tough place to play,” head coach Steven McRoberts said. “There’s not another place like it. The fans that come do a good job of being loud.”



The Sugar Bears won two of three last week, putting themselves into a temporary tie with Lamar for second place in the East Division. But division-leader McNeese State (10-3 in SLC) handed the team their second home loss of the season, winning the other seven.



After playing two non-conference opponents, the Sugar Bears head back out on the road, where they spent the first 14 games this season.



“It’s been rough,” McRoberts said about the travel. “For us it all happened early. We were on the road seven out of the first five weekends.



“Coach Hay and myself were starting to get really tired, so we knew the girls must be.”



Still, the Sugar Bears managed a 7-7 record through those first 14, allowing the team to be in within reach of the goals they set before the season.



“One of our goals was to have a winning season. That was a big goal. We’re not only four wins away from having a .500 season but also .500 in the conference.”



This week the Sugar Bears look to go two games over .500 in their next two matches. They were able to beat Centenary 3-0 early in the season and handled UAPB 3-0 last season in Pine Bluff.



Another goal for this season was to be eligible for the conference tournament if NCAA rules allowed. The tournament includes the top eight records from the entire conference. UCA is currently in a tie for 7th.



“That Texas State win, conference-wise, put our program on the map. To be able to beat them and do it in three shows us we’re not too far from being able to compete for a championship in this conference.”



Texas State won the conference tournament last season as a four seed.



The final four games will determine whether the Sugar Bears can get back to .500 in the Southland. They play Nicholls State and Southeastern Louisiana on the road first. The good new there is that they are at the bottom of the East Division with a combined 2-22 record.



The last two games are at home against Sam Houston State and undefeated in conference Stephen F. Austin.



“I probably didn’t set my expectations high enough because of the unknown. We’ve got three seniors that have done everything we ask, but we’re still young.



“One of the main differences in Division I is that we’ve got to be ready every night.”



UCA is trying to finish with consecutive winning season for the first time since the 93-94 seasons.

Fundrasing Challenge

October 25, 2006







To all UCA Athletic Supporters:



Harold Helton, Mark (Foot) Osburn and Verlon Spencer have been challenged by a Conway businessman to raise $50,000.00 for UCA Athletics by December 31, 2006 and this businessman will match this with a $100,000.00 gift to the UCA Athletic Department Purple Circle.



Therefore, we have established the Helton, Osburn, Spencer Athletic Scholarship at UCA. This scholarship will be administered by the athletic director and can be used for any sport. Donations to this Fund are fully tax deductible because it is set up under the UCA Foundation/Purple Circle which is a 501-c-3 organization.



We ask for your help in raising this $50,000.00. You can mail your tax deductible donation to:

University of Central Arkansas Foundation, Inc.

Helton, Osburn, Spencer Athletic Scholarship

UCA Box 4986

Conway, Arkansas 72035-0001



Or you can call Kathy at the UCA Foundation office at 501-450-5288 and give her your credit card # for your donation.



Thank you, for your support of UCA Athletics.







Harold Helton

Mark (Foot) Osburn

Verlon Spencer 

UC Davis 411

Quick Overview

The Aggies come into the came with a 2-3 record, but their competition has been stiff and every game on the road. Their three losses came against a DI-A school and the fourth and sixth ranked teams in I-AA.

Their most impressive win was a 45-0 pounding of Montana State. Yes, that Montana State – the one that beat Colorado in week one of the season only to immediately follow that up with three losses. UC Davis piled up nearly 500 yards of offense, 393 of that through the air.

Bob Biggs has been the Aggie head coach for 14 years, with a winning percentage of .703. He’s even better at Toomey Field, capacity 10,111. According to their Web site, UC Davis hasn’t had a losing season in an amazing 36 years. Although they finished with just a 6-5 record, last year the Aggies were co-champions of the five-member Great West Football Conference.

The Aggies, in their final year of transition to I-AA, have lost two straight heading into Saturday’s matchup.

Aggie Offense

Averaging 27.4 points per game, the UC Davis offense is led by senior quarterback Jon Grant. Grant (6-3, 200) threw for 2,873 yards and 13 touchdowns last season. (Compare that with Nathan Brown and Chris Reil’s combined 3,856 and 36 last season in D2. Brown this season, after missing three games, is on pace for just 1,938 yards.) Grant has completed less than 55% of his passes this season but is averaging 255 yards per game. He attempts 36 passes per game. This year, similar to last year’s more balanced attack, UCA’s attempts are down fewer than 31 a game.

Grant’s favorite targets are sophomore Chris Carter (6-0, 190) and Tony Kays (6-1, 195). Carter averages more yards per game, but Kays is the go-to guy near the endzone, catching five touchdown passes. The Aggies have five players with more than 10 receptions on the season. Most players are around 6-0, but Brandon Rice, who’s 6-5, 205, is built in the mold of UCA’s Aaron Fairooz.

The balanced offense, at least in attempts, splits carries between Alex Garfio (5-9, 200) and Marcus Nolan (5-11, 220). Neither have broken any long runs this season. The longest carry by any rusher is 28 yards. Grant also isn’t afraid to run the ball. UC Davis is playing this season without their leading rusher from last year that is recovering from an injury.

Even with Grant dropping back to pass around 200 times, the offensive line has only given up five sacks on the season, three of those coming in their last game against Cal-Poly. Averaging 292 lbs across the starting line, the Aggies return a lot of experience from last season, including three seniors. Senior right tackle Elliot Vallejo throws the average off-kilter with his 6-7, 315 frame.

UC Davis scores on 93% of their red-zone chances and is 50% on third-down conversions.

Aggie Defense

If you throw out the game against TCU, the defense has given up just 17 points per game. Again removing a TCU team that ran for 293 yards, the Aggies have only averaged giving up 83 yards in the other four games.

The pass defense limits opponents to 173 yards and has interception five passes with five different players. Senior Nevan Bergan is tied for the team lead in tackles and has one interception this season after grabbing five INTs last season.

Returning seven starters from last season, they have accounted for 11 sacks and 28 tackles for loss. Linebacker Chris Buck is the other team leader in tackles. The junior also has the lead in sacks (3) and tackles-for-loss (5.5). He’s already far surpassed his totals from last season when he was not a starter.

The defensive line returns all four starters. Three of those were first-team all-conference selections last season, which doesn’t bode well for a UCA offensive line that’s played poorly at times this season. Those three have 6.5 sacks and 13.5 tackles-for-loss. Needless to say, the UCA offensive line will have their hands full.

Special Teams

UC Davis has made six of seven field goals and averages 36 yards a punt. They haven’t broken any long punt or kickoff returns, but the UCA coverage teams have certainly given up some long ones this season. On the other side, the Aggie coverage hasn’t given up a punt return of more than 18 yards or a kick return of more than 35.

Only home game ends in loss

For the five seniors on the men’s soccer roster, Sunday’s match against Midwestern State wasn’t what they had imagined for the team’s lone home game of the season.

The 1-0 loss gave the Bears a 5-7-1 record with just three games left, all back on the road.

"It just leaves a bad taste in your mouth," head coach Chad Flanders said about the loss on the senior’s only home match of the season.

"It’s really disappointed because we’ve played a lot better on the road the last four games, and even though we’d lost some games, we played better soccer."

The Bears had prime opportunities in the first 25 minutes of the game but couldn’t capitalize on any.

All three of UCA’s shots on goal were early in the first half. The team only had two shots in the second half, none were directed towards the goal.

MSU on the other hand had just one shot on goal in the first half but made that one count as Brandon Swartzendruber scored with 12 minutes remaining in the first half on what Coach Flanders called a counter.

"I thought we lacked an ability to have any impact in the game. If we’d have scored a goal in the first 25 minutes, the game’s totally different, but instead we give one up on the counter."

While those first 25 minutes seemed to be played almost entirely with UCA on their offensive side of the field, the second half seemed to be mostly the opposite.

"You’ve got to get the ball in the dangerous area of the field. We got in there, but we didn’t get anything out of it.

"We didn’t create enough to be dangerous besides the first 20 minutes in the first half.

It was very disappointing to see, because we played a lot better than that the last couple of weeks."

Every senior was able to get into the game and play at least 15 minutes. Senior Nick Hankins had one of the shots on goal.

"I’m sure they (seniors) are disappointed," Flanders said. "They’ve done a great job as a group of giving us leadership and playing great soccer. We’re going to miss them."

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Defense finds a way; Offense needs to follow suit

If defense does in fact win championships, this UCA squad would probably be tough to beat if they were back in Division II.

I know they have some new faces that might not be on campus if the move wasn’t made, but I can’t help but wonder what if we had one more year. After UCA shutout the previously unbeaten and 8th ranked South Dakota Coyotes 24-0 on Saturday, my mind wondered just where we’d stack up again in D-II.

The Bear defense, except for the Stephen F. Austin game, has been very impressive, holding opponents to under 10 points per game. While I’ll admit that it’s not always a three-and-out kind of performance, they seem to stop the drives somehow, someway when they need to. USD put together the longest drive of the game for either team, only to fumble at the three. On their first drive, trying to answer a UCA touchdown drive to open the game, USD threw an interception in the end zone. It seemed to be more of a good defensive play than a bad one for the Coyote offense.

The UCA offense, on the other hand, has often just managed to survive. Don’t be fooled by the 24 points UCA scored against USD. It wasn’t a good performance for the offense, especially by the standards of the Bear teams of the past.

With the return of Nathan Brown, everything was supposed to be back to normal, but as good as USD’s defense is – and they are good – UCA’s offense only put together two touchdown drives. Those two possessions accounted for 156 of UCA’s total 253 yards of offense, meaning the other eight possessions (we’re not going to count running the time off the clock to end the first half) averaged barely more than a first down.

It gets worse. The average starting field position was at the 40. The defense forced 5 turnovers, but the offense didn’t turn any of those into points, missing a field goal was the closest they came.

And how about the special teams play of kicker/punter/part-time tackler James Paul? The guy has really stepped up. Sure he missed a field goal early in the game, but he came back and drilled an even longer one. Sure he botched an attempted pooch punt off his foot for just 15 yards. But just before that he kicked a school-record 81-yarder – talk about flipping the field. The only reason the number isn’t 91 or more is because they stop counting at the goal line. Even with the short kick, he averaged 47.2 per kick.

Also worthy of at least a mention is the punt and kick blocking abilities of Aaron Fairooz. He did it again against the Coyotes. The game was certainly still up in the air until Fairooz blocked what was going to be a punt. But, apparently, the ball was never even kicked. He beat the ball to the punters foot. The guy only had one catch in the game for zero yards, but still found a way to get into the end zone.

This team has a lot of seniors on it, especially the defense. And when I think about that, it makes me wonder. But this time I’m wondering what if we had moved up last season. Where would we stack up in the Southland with this group? Instead, those guys are competing to compete. They can’t win anything but games. And with six games still on the schedule, they will probably win a few more.

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