Sugar Bears improve to 8-0
Wednesday, September 5 @ 10:03 AM
Trey Hankins/UCAFANS.com
The Sugar Bears celebrate after defeating UALR on Tuesday night.
“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.
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.
“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
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.”