Box Score
Photo Gallery
2016 Southland Volleyball Tournament Central
CONWAY, Ark. – No. 5 Central Arkansas gave the Southland’s best team all they could handle, but a balanced attack and efficient hitting led the No. 1 A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders past the Sugar Bears 3-1 in Saturday’s last semifinal. The Islanders have now advanced to the tournament championship match in back-to-back seasons and will look to complete two straight undefeated conference seasons tomorrow against No. 3 Sam Houston State.
Sugar Bears head coach Jeni Jones Chatman called her first timeout when the Islanders edged ahead to the largest lead of the set at 14-10. Central Arkansas continued to hang with the Islanders, pulling within one with a 4-1 run following their timeout. A&M-Corpus Christi managed to build another slight lead when Chatman called her second timeout with her team down 18-14. UCA kept the end of the set close, but a 7-6 run gave the Islanders a 25-20 victory in set one.
A&M-Corpus Christi held the advantage on hitting percentage (.355 to .152) in a set that read very similar for both sides. The first set saw seven ties and two lead changes.
After falling behind 8-4 early in the second set, the Sugar Bears went on a scoring run that the Islander defense rarely allows, going 7-1 to tie the set at 15-15. A&M-Corpus Christi head coach Steve Greene called his first timeout, but it was UCA that kept the momentum, inching ahead to a 19-17 lead. The two sides battled for the rest of the second set when Central Arkansas held on and found themselves poised to draw level with the Islanders 1-1 before the intermission. With the Sugar Bears leading 24-23, sophomore Haley Tippett’s fifth kill of the set sealed the 25-23 win in the second set for UCA.
The Islanders still held the slight edge on hitting percentage in the second set (.293 to .229), but a slight advantage on defense helped the Sugar Bears to a narrow win. Central Arkansas led in second-set digs 24-23.
A&M-Corpus Christi got off to a hot start in the third set, jumping out to a quick 7-2 lead, but the Sugar Bears would not go away. After Chatman’s second timeout with her team down 17-11, UCA pulled within three at 17-14 amidst a 6-3 run that forced Greene’s first timeout of the set with the Islanders up 21-16. The Bears would continue their run and pull within two, but A&M-Corpus Christi would end on a 5-1 run of their own to escape with a 25-20 win and a 2-1 lead heading into the fourth set.
The Sugar Bear offense took a dive in the face of an exceptional defensive performance from the Islanders in the third set. Central Arkansas was held to a –.070 hitting percentage while A&M-Corpus Christi tallied five total team blocks (10 block assists).
The Islanders again found themselves with an early lead in the fourth set, forcing a UCA timeout with an 8-2 advantage. Central Arkansas then found themselves in an equally familiar position – battling back to get within striking distance in the middle of the set. A 7-4 run brought the Sugar Bears within three, but a subsequent 3-0 run from A&M-Corpus Christi forced a timeout from Chatman again at 15-9. UCA mounted another run, this time 7-3 to pull within two, 18-16. Greene was forced into a timeout with a 21-17 lead, after which Central Arkansas went on a 5-3 run, inside which was a 3-0 run to deny the Islanders the match point for three straight rallies and pull the score to 24-22. In the end, a net violation gave A&M-Corpus Christi the set point and a hard-fought 3-1 victory over the tournament hosts to advance to tomorrow’s title match-up.
The Islanders were led by First Team All-Conference selection Morgan Carlson with 17 kills (.441), leading a .262 team hitting percentage for the match. Sophomore Samantha Anderson led the Sugar Bears with 14 kills (.140). UCA hit .112 as a team. Both defenses were busy through all four sets, with the Islanders holding a slight advantage on digs (78-75) while the Sugar Bears were stronger at the net with nine total blocks to A&M-Corpus Christi’s eight.
The No. 1 Islanders will take on No. 3 Sam Houston State in the championship match tomorrow at 3:05 p.m., looking to complete their second straight undefeated year, conference regular season and postseason included. The championship will be broadcast on
ESPN3, available via
WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app.