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 Post subject: Re: 2013 Volleyball
PostPosted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 4:17 pm 
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I just read on the mizzou website that MU students get into the tournament matches for free. I guess I figured that the ncaa would require all to pay for entry. This may be allowed but is not right in my opinion. UCA, IUPUI, and Purdue students would surely have to buy a ticket. Anyone know the ncaa's stance on this? It seems to me that home court would be advantage enough. Just curious. In my opinion this would be like North Alabama students getting into the D2 football national championship in Florence at no charge if N. Alabama were playing in it.

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 Post subject: Re: 2013 Volleyball
PostPosted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 4:41 pm 
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I wonder if the university bought them and are giving them to the students.


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 Post subject: Re: 2013 Volleyball
PostPosted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 5:23 pm 
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Good luck, SugarBears!

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 Post subject: Re: 2013 Volleyball
PostPosted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 5:26 pm 
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It's almost GAMETIME! Go Sugarbears!


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 Post subject: Re: 2013 Volleyball
PostPosted: Mon Dec 09, 2013 11:21 pm 
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http://www.ucasports.com/news/2013/12/7/VB_1207132554.aspx

Columbia, Mo. – For the second consecutive season, Central Arkansas saw its volleyball program's wildly successful season come to a close in the NCAA Tournament on Friday as the Sugar Bears fell to perennial power Purdue 25-15, 25-17, 25-13 in the first round at the University of Missouri's Hearnes Center.

The loss brought an end to another championship season for the Sugar Bears (29-4), who made their second consecutive NCAA Tournament after winning 22 straight matches – including all 21 against Southland Conference foes – and became the first Southland program to win back-to-back regular season and tournament championships since 1990. They were knocked out of the national championship tournament by a Purdue (21-11) squad that has now reached the second round of the NCAAs in four straight years and nine of the last 11. Last season, the Sugar Bears bowed out of the NCAAs with a loss to No. 5 national seed Washington to end a 30-win season.

In Friday's loss, the Sugar Bears hit a season-low .010 with 26 errors, while the Boilermakers had a .312 attack percentage – the highest surrendered by the Sugar Bears this season, eclipsing the .274 mark by Marquette. By comparison, No. 2 Penn State hit only .247 against the Sugar Bears earlier in the season. Purdue had 36 kills to 27 for the Sugar Bears, and had seven service aves to just one for UCA.

The Sugar Bears showed some fight early on, trailing 11-7 in the first set before the Boilermakers went on a 9-2 run to gain their largest lead at 20-9. The Sugar Bears were able to cut it to 22-15, but got no closer as the Purdue closed it out with the final three points. In Set 2, the Sugar Bears threatened late as they trailed 20-16, but suffered a pair of hitting errors to help the Boilermakers end on a 5-1 run to pull away for the win. In the final set, the Boilermakers jumped out to a 9-1 lead and rolled to the 25-13 win, with the Sugar Bears never getting closer than 17-9.

Evie Grace Singleton led the Sugar Bears with seven kills on the night, while Jessica Nagy and Heather Schnars each chipped in five. Marissa Collins tallied a match-high 23 assists to pace the Central Arkansas offense, and on defense, Shelbee Berringer had a match-high 11 digs while Fulani Petties and Nagy had three blocks each.

Sam Epenesa led Purdue with eight kills, and Annie Drews hit .462, the highest attack percentage that the Sugar Bears have conceded to an individual this year. Val Nichol dished out 19 assists and Rachel Davis chipped in nine. Defensively, the Boilermakers were led by Carly Cramer's 10 digs and Kierra Jones' eight blocks.

In ending their season in the field of 64 for the second consecutive season, the Sugar Bears conclude a two-year run that saw them win 86 percent of their matches with 59 wins (the second most in the country behind Penn State entering this year's NCAA Tournament), a pair of Southland Conference regular-season championships and two tournament titles with a total record of 39-3 (.923) against league foes, an RPI among the national Top 50, and a No. 24 ranking by VolleyballMag.com.


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 Post subject: Re: 2013 Volleyball
PostPosted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 10:49 pm 
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http://www.ucasports.com/news/2014/1/10/VB_0110145019.aspx

Great post-season wrap....thanks to all the young ladies and to our coaches....nice pics at the link....

On December 13, the 14th-ranked University of Kansas volleyball team and its seven-member senior class saw their season come to a close in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament as the Jayhawks were swept by Washington, a team that would go on to the Final Four.

With 25 wins and the program's first-ever trip to the Sweet 16, the Jayhawks enjoyed their deepest postseason run and most successful season ever. But for as good as their season may have turned out, it did not start ideally, as the then-No. 9 Jayhawks got off on the wrong foot – suffering a 3-1 loss right out of the gate.

To Central Arkansas.

With that season-opening victory over a marquee opponent serving as a springboard, the Sugar Bears went on to also put together the finest season in their program's history. A journey that began with that 3-1 win over the Jayhawks in Arizona would, over the next few months, take the Sugar Bears to unprecedented heights in a record-setting season that once again culminated in the NCAA Tournament.

After a 30-5 record in 2012, the Sugar Bears followed it up with a 29-4 mark in 2013 – ending the regular season trailing only Penn State in wins over the last two seasons. The team cracked the top 45 in the RPI, the highest the program has climbed, and went 21-0 against Southland Conference opponents as they became the first Southland team since 1990 to win the league's regular season and tournament championships in back-to-back seasons.

Before falling in the NCAA Tournament to Purdue – which would go on to the Elite Eight, where the Boilermakers lost to national runner-up Wisconsin – the Sugar Bears suffered just three losses all season, with two coming in one day.

The first setback came the day after the win over Kansas, a 3-1 loss to another Top 25, NCAA Tournament team in Arizona on its home floor.

The only others came on Sept. 14 in a tournament at Florida Gulf Coast, where the Sugar Bears opened the day with No. 1 Penn State – which finished the season with its fifth national championship in seven years. Though the Sugar Bears were swept by the Nittany Lions, it wasn't without battling the nation's most dominant program to the wire, falling 25-20 and 25-22 in the first two sets. Later that day, they held a 2-1 lead over Marquette – which ended the season 11th in the RPI and advanced to the round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament – but fell short in the fifth set.

After those losses, they went 82 days without a setback as they won their next 22 matches – racking up 17 sweeps throughout the regular season.

"What an absolutely incredible season," said third-year head coach David McFatrich, who is 76-24 at Central Arkansas and was voted Southland Conference Coach of the Year following the regular season. "To go 29-4 with our schedule is off the charts – and to do that coming off 30-5 the year before is way off the charts. To have those types of seasons back-to-back with conference championships and tournament championships and NCAA berths is an incredible testament to the hard work our team and coaching staff has put in.

"The team we had this season was just incredibly, incredibly good," he said. "When you start out beating a highly-ranked team like Kansas, you know you're legit. There have been a lot of great things happen here over the last seven years – a lot of championships, a lot of big wins. Seven years ago, we were 284 in the RPI. This year we got to 44 and very easily could've been in the 30s. It's been a steady climb for our program and, not to diminish any of the tremendous accomplishments here in previous years, but this I thought was our best team. They had great leadership, as good as I've ever seen, and were incredibly close. And now they get to hang three more banners in the Prince Center. All they've accomplished – it's really hard for me to get my head around."


THE FOUNDATION
The Sugar Bears' success in 2013 was based largely on not only the team's personnel, but also its personality.

At the core was the senior class, consisting of Marissa Collins, Megan Elmquist, Paige Gantar, Kyle Hartman, Jessica Nagy and Beth Rogers.

Over the past four seasons, since the original members of that group came to campus, the Sugar Bears compiled an overall record of 104-32 (.765), dominated the Southland Conference with a record of 58-9 (.866) in the regular season and 9-2 in the conference tournament, had three seasons of at least 28 wins and won three conference championships.

Marissa Collins cemented her place as one of the league's all-time greats by being voted the conference Player of the Year and Setter of the Year in 2013, the first time in league history for a player to win both awards in the same season. She followed that by earning MVP honors in the conference tournament. In all, she was a four-year All-Southland selection and was Setter of the Year three times. She ranked 6th nationally in assists per set and shattered the UCA record for career assists.

Nagy, who provided the Sugar Bears with a steady presence over the last four years, was an All-Southland Tournament selection the past two seasons. Gantar, who was with her first season with the Sugar Bears after having played previously at UALR, came in and made an immediate impact by leading the Southland Conference in hitting percentage.

"I get a little emotional talking about them," McFatrich said of his senior group. "I can't really find the words to describe how great they have been. For our seniors to do what they've done against the best teams in the nation and look back on it and they won 104 matches and all those championships during their careers is incredible. They have left an indelible mark on this program. Our program is so much better off because of our senior class. We had six great seniors – and great leaders. Everybody pitched in, but our true leadership tandem of Marissa Collins and Jessica Nagy – any coach would be hard-pressed to find two better leaders. We've had to challenge people to replace them, and that's going to be tough to do. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our seniors. They worked hard and never gave us any problem. They were always focused and highly competitive. I'm blessed to have had the opportunity to coach those six young ladies, and it's definitely sad to see them go."

But it was not merely the seniors' presence and the team's overall talent level that lifted the Sugar Bears into the national volleyball conscious. They blended those two attributes with what McFatrich says was ultimately the key ingredient to the team's prosperity – a championship mentality.

"This team has an incredible ability to forget and forgive immediately and move on," he said. "That's one of the coolest things about this group and a huge part of our success. Push the clear button and move on. This team did that better than any team I've ever seen, and it's a major, major reason that we were 29-4. And on top of that, they're super competitive. The way we structure our practices invariably leads to developing the competitive nature of the individual. We have winners and losers every single day. When that happens, it develops competitiveness. Yes, we've got some great ball skills, but that only truly matters when you're competitive, driven and focused. And this group has all of that. We've never had a top-rated recruit in here. Just like in football there are recruiting services that scout and rank players all over the nation, and we've never had a 5-star or 4-star or a Top 150 type of kid. That just gives more credence to the fact that they work extremely hard and do what we ask and have great determination to be the best player they can be."


THE RUN
The Sugar Bears' 2013 run through the Southland Conference was one of complete dominance. In 18 regular-season matches the Sugar Bears had 11 sweeps and, counting the Southland tournament, won 63 of 73 sets (86.3 percent) against conference foes with the average score in those wins being 25-17. And, it took until the championship match of the conference tournament for any team in the league to take the Sugar Bears to a fifth set.

The Sugar Bears led the conference in hitting percentage and aces, assists and kills per set and took home hardware for Player, Setter and Coach of the Year in addition to the regular season and tournament trophies. It ended a four-year run in which the outgoing senior class won nearly 87 percent of their matches against Southland competition, going a combined 67-11 in the regular and post season.

"Our conference season was one we'll never forget," McFatrich said. "To go through any conference in the nation 18-0 in the regular season and never go five sets is an amazing accomplishment. We came in with some momentum given the competition we'd faced and success we'd had early in the season, and we were able to maintain our focus because we knew that we were capable of achieving great things. Our girls wanted to do something exceptional, and they accomplished that and they're excited to be hanging more banners in the Prince Center."

The lone near-misstep occurred in the final conference match of the season, the championship match against Northwestern State in the tournament. The Sugar Bears fell behind 0-2 for only the second time of the entire season – the other being to No. 1 Penn State – but rallied to win in five, clobbering the Lady Demons 25-13 and 25-14 in the next two sets before winning the decisive set 15-12 to punch their ticket to another NCAA Tournament.

"To have the kind of run we did all throughout the regular season and tournament, then get to the championship match and go down 0-2 for the first time all year other than Penn State could have really shaken us up," McFatrich said. "But to come back and win the way we did was an amazing feat. You've got to give the players credit – they're just battle-tested, tough, hard-nosed players who refuse to lose. If we don't win that match, we're a bubble team to get into the NCAA Tournament. But we didn't want to be on the bubble, and our girls did what it took to make sure we got in and got to go represent UCA on a national stage once again."

Though they achieved their goal of once again getting to the national tournament, they were met with disappointment as they fell in the first round to Purdue – a team that knocked off undefeated Missouri the following night along their path to the Elite 8.

"We didn't compete the way we wanted to," McFatrich said. "They were a very good team playing at a high level, but we thought we had a solid game plan and went in there thinking we had a chance to win. We had good practices, and thought we were ready. Left the locker room, thought we were ready. Had a great warmup, thought we were ready. Then came the first serve, and we didn't seem ready. It was disappointing for all of us – we wanted to give our best shot at one of the nation's best teams and if they beat us, congratulate them and move on. But we didn't give them our best shot and that was frustrating. However, that doesn't at all trump what we did this season and will help serve as a motivating factor for us as we look ahead to next year and strive to accomplish even more."


THE FUTURE
While the seniors provided leadership and a great amount of production, it was by no means they alone who carried the Sugar Bears, who featured a balanced roster that saw great contributions throughout.

Sophomore Heather Schnars was voted to the All-Southland 1st team and ranked 9th in the nation in aces per set. Junior Shelbee Berringer, an All-Southland honorable mention, was 45th nationally in digs per set and was named Most Valuable Libero at the Hilton Garden Inn/Homewood Suites Classic that also featured top-ranked Penn State and then-No. 25 Marquette. Freshman Fulani Petties, also an All-Southland honorable mention, was 4th in the conference in hitting percentage behind teammates Gantar (1st) and junior Alicia Dittrich (2nd), a 1st team All-Southland performer a year ago.

Junior Scout Brooks joined Collins as the only Sugar Bears to appear in 111 sets in 2013, making 27 starts and finishing third on the team in kills. Sophomore Amy South appeared in 104 sets, 4th-most on the team. Sophomore Corri Hunt saw action in 25 matches, playing 78 sets, and freshman Evie Grace Singleton came on strong at the end of the season after limited duty earlier in the year, playing a significant role in the final matches as she had 10 kills in the Southland tournament championship match and a team-high seven against Purdue.

"We lose a great group of seniors, but we still have a tremendous group intact," McFatrich said. "We really like the kids we have coming back and we're looking to add a couple great ones to our recruiting class to go with them. One word we don't plan on using around here is 'rebuild'. We have bigger aspirations than what we accomplished this year. We want to get better and work our tails off to make that happen."

To do so, they'll need to find a way to fill the leadership void created by the outgoing seniors' departure. And they'll need to do so right away – which, by all accounts, should not be an issue.

"Our upcoming seniors have already indicated to us that they are ready," McFatrich said. "They've learned a lot from this year's seniors, and they're ready to take on that role. We have emphasized to them that that role begins immediately – not this fall. It should have began over Christmas break. What are you going to do to stay ready? What is the team going to do to get better? Those are questions that have to be asked and answered now. You don't wait until the fall to start working on that. And they get that. We've got an opportunity to have great leadership again next year. I think it's going to be neat to see them grow and fulfill that role."

The leadership will have to change, but with the personnel changing there will have to be tweaks made to the offensive and defensive systems – a process that began the night of the loss to Purdue.

"Our coaching staff – myself and John and Brittany Newberry – sat down for an hour and a half meeting about what we need to do to get better for next year," McFatrich said. "There are things we'll look at – some things we'll change, some things we'll at least look at changing. We have to be diligent as coaches and make sure we're developing our systems of play to put the team in the best position possible to win."

One thing that won't change, however, is the work ethic.

"Our players know they have to work hard," he said. "We challenged them to get ready. If anything, we're going to come back and work harder. We're not going to settle and we don't want to rebuild. We plan on keeping this thing going, and the best way to do that is through hard work. Our returners know they have to work hard, but that if they do we're capable of great things. They're excited about the future. The bar is set high, but they're up for working hard and are totally bought in. Our goal is to get our RPI even higher and see if we can't win bring championship to Central Arkansas."

THE COACHING STAFF

As the Sugar Bears have compiled a 59-9 record over the previous two seasons, it has been under the guidance of McFatrich and assistant coaches John and Brittany Newberry, who were brought in prior to the 2012 season. That trio has helped make Central Arkansas one of just a handful of programs to make the tournament in each of the last two seasons.

"I can't say enough about John and Brittany," McFatrich said. "They do an incredible job – they're great coaches and mentors, and I really can't imagine coaching without them. And also Steve Hornor, our athletic trainer. He's not your normal trainer – he's like family to us. He genuinely cares for the program and our team, and he's one of our biggest cheerleaders. You don't often see an athletic trainer coming off the bench and urging on the team. But he's family to us, and I don't know how else to say it but that I'm incredibly blessed. We're in a good spot at a great university, surrounded by people we love working with and blessed to coach girls we're blessed to coach. We've got great support from our administration, and I really feel like I'm a very, very lucky guy. We're in just a great spot to be in, and if we were 15-15 I'd say the same thing. Very lucky and very blessed. Central Arkansas is a great place to be, and we've done some awesome things with our program but we haven't yet met our full potential, and I'm excited to see what is in store for UCA volleyball."


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