The week that is (8.23.10)

A few fall sports are getting into the full swing of things this week.

1.  Women’s Soccer

Women’s Soccer got underway last week with an exhibition game against Lyon College in Conway.  The Bears won 2-0, with senior Brittney Warren scoring both goals.  They then went on the road to UL-Monroe.  They came up short, falling 1-0 to the Warhawks.  The team starts the season with an 0-1 record, but on Thursday are facing off against Alcorn State in Lorman, Miss., in an effort to improve their record.  They will be off the rest of the week before facing UALR in Conway on Wednesday, Sept. 1.

2. Men’s Soccer

The men open the season today with the first of three exhibition matches.  The first is today at 5:00 pm against John Brown in Conway.  They will then travel to Dallas to take on SMU on Wednesday, and then they are off to Shawnee, Okla., to face Oklahoma Baptist (NAIA team who thinks the Men’s Soccer team plays in the SLC, I guess we are just being nice to them).

3. Volleyball

The ladies kicked off the season with the Alumni Game last Saturday, where the newcomers came out on top (25-15, 25-13, 25-22).  They will kick-off regular season play this Friday at the UniWyo Wyoming Invite with matches against Northern Arizona [8-17 (5-10)] and host Wyoming [13-18 (3-13)], and then on Saturday they will meet Murray State [13-18 (11-7)] and Southern Utah [9-20 (7-11)].  On a side note, Southern Utah is only in its 2nd season of volleyball in over 20 years since starting the program back up last season.  The Sugar Bears’ schedule only gets tougher in the coming weeks…

Schedule – 9/10 to 9/14

There’s a lot going on in Conway this weekend, and it all starts with the volleyball team kicking off the Sugar Bear Classic.

Volleyball

• 9/10 @ 7p.m. in Conway; Louisiana Tech
• 9/11 @ 2p.m. in Conway; Louisiana-Monroe
• 9/11 @ 6p.m. in Conway; Air Force
• 9/12 @ 2:30p.m. in Conway; UAPB
• 9/14 @ 6p.m. in Pine Bluff; UAPB

Men’s Soccer

• 9/11 @ 5p.m. in Conway; Eastern Illinois
• 9/13 @ 3p.m. in Conway; Missouri State

Women’s Soccer

• 9/11 @ 3p.m. in Conway; Oral Roberts
• 9/13 @ 3p.m. in Nashville, TN; Lipscomb

Softball

• 9/12 @ 3p.m. in Conway; Central Baptist (City of Colleges Park)

Football

• Open Week

Recent News

Some stories that you may not have read over the last week or so:

• Central Arkansas has no problem finding motivation
• McCollum’s Column: Hawaii players’ names make for tongue-twisters
• McCollum’s Column: A micro opponent could decide a lot of games this season
• Bears move into game-plan mode for opener against Hawaii
• Every Day There’s A New Football Story
• Southland Conference expected to be as competitive as ever
• Eskimos break Ticat hearts 31-30
  
  
• Volleyball Takes Down UCA, 3-1
• Owls Smack the Sugar Bears 3-1

Schedule – 8/18 to 8/28

Football (practice)
8/19 @ 9a.m. & 7p.m. (scrimmage)

Volleyball
8/22 @ 2p.m. in Conway; Alumni Match
8/28 @ 5p.m. in Houston, Tx; Rice

Men’s Soccer
8/22 @ 4p.m. in Conway; Northeastern State (exhibition)

Women’s Soccer
8/22 @ 5p.m. in Jonesboro; Arkansas State

Volleyball Signing

The school has an Ivy-League type feel. There’s a volleyball specific gym. It’s great.

- Alysha McCreary

Alysha McCreary, a 6-2 middle blocker from San Angelo, Texas, signed her LOI on Monday.



McCreary is originally from California but moved to San Angelo’s Central High when her father got a job with the Angelo State’s volleyball team.



She chose UCA over Sam Houston, Coastal Carolina and obviously Angelo State.



In her one season at Central HIgh she "was named to the District 2-5A first team and was a member of the All-West Texas team after tallying 312 kills, 92 solo blocks, 102 block assists and 29 aces in her lone season in a Lady Cats’ uniform."



Video from Concho Valley

Sugar Bears improve to 8-0

Trey Hankins/UCAFANS.com

The Sugar Bears celebrate after defeating UALR on Tuesday night.

Tuesday was the first Sugar Bear home game for three freshmen. A standing-room only crowd of 361 showed up to see it, and the team didn’t disappoint, extending its perfect mark to 8-0 on the season in a 3-2 battle with UALR.



“We were probably a little tight tonight playing in front of our home crowd for the first time with three freshmen out on the court,” head coach Steven McRoberts said. “And our sophomores are still learning too. Out of our nine players in the rotation: three sophomores, three freshman, two juniors.



“Sometimes I feel like we should be a little further along in the process, but then I think three of the girls are eight matches into their college career and we haven’t lost yet.”

Freshman Chloe Smith led the team with 19 kills and a .351 attack percentage.

What McRoberts didn’t mention is that two of those juniors are also newcomers to the team this fall after transferring in.



The Sugar Bears jumped out to a 3-0 lead in game one and never let UALR get on top, but the Trojans did battle back to make it very close at the end of the game. In what was the longest volley I’ve seen in my few years of attending, UALR finally made a mistake, and UCA won the point and the game.



“I don’t even remember game one anymore,” McRoberts said smiling. “We had quite a few that were long. And then you’d think the ball was down and one side would get it up, and here it goes again.”



UCA struggled in game two, but after being down 11-17, they battled back to tie it at 19-19. The game continued to be close, and the Sugar Bears actually took a 31-30 lead. But UALR responded with the next two points and eventually pulled out a 34-32 win.



“I really felt like the first two or three games or so, we really looked kind of flat,” McRoberts said. “We were really lucky to have one and had a chance to have two and weren’t even playing very well.”

Sophomore Evaree Franklin spurred the game four win with seven kills.

UALR coasted to a 30-23 win in game three in part due to UCA’s poor attack percentage, but UCA turned the table in game four. Each time the Trojans would go on a run, the Sugar Bears would answer with a run of their own. Game four included three straight service aces by freshman Chloe Evans, and sophomore Evaree Franklin added seven kills. After being tied at 25-25, UCA rolled off four straight points on their way to winning 30-16 and setting up a game five.



“I thought our defense responded really well,” McRoberts said. “They had some big hits that we dug, and then won the point after a good dig; whereas early on we weren’t doing that. I think defensively this was our best effort all season. Offensively we looked out of sync at times. We just seemed like we were grasping.”



Last season, the Sugar Bears played into a fifth game just three times, and one of those was a nail biter against Arkansas State. This was the second of the young season



“Our first match was a five-gamer and we won pretty convincingly in the fifth,” McRoberts said.

I think defensively this was our best effort all season.

Coach Steven McRoberts

Tuesday’s fifth game wouldn’t be considered a convincing win, but it was exciting.



For those unfamiliar with college volleyball, the fifth game is to 15, not 30 like the others. So when the Sugar Bears went up 12-6, it looked like UALR’s chances were about to run out, but three UCA attack errors later the Trojans were down just 12-9. UALR then won three of the next four points and cut the UCA lead to just one, 13-12.



“We went up 12-6 and I though, oh good, this isn’t going to be like ASU,” McRoberts said. “And then it was at 13-12, and I said ‘ here we go’.”



Senior Camila Scapini picked up two of her 15 kills on the night to score the last two points and get UCA the match.



“That was a crazy point to end on too,” McRoberts said of another good back-and-forth volley between the two teams.



“To beat a team like that no matter if it’s pretty or ugly, we scrapped.



“It’s kind of nice to be at this point. We felt like this was going to be a big hurdle in our pre-conference schedule.”



UCA will host a tournament at the Farris Center this weekend that will include the aforementioned Arkansas State and Tennessee-Martin, the team that played UCA to five games the first match of the season.



“If we play the way we’re capable, I think we go 3-0 on the weekend and go into their place to play them again at 11-0. Let’s hope that’s the case.”