Box Score
HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University volleyball team dropped a tough, four-set match to Southland Conference front-runner Central Arkansas Saturday at the University Center.
Despite holding Central Arkansas (22-2, 10-1 Southland) well below its season attack percentage (match: .197; season .272) , Southeastern (8-14, 3-9 Southland) came up on the short end of a 25-13, 21-25, 25-21, 25-22 score.
Lady Lion senior
Courtney Donald (17 kills, .452 attack percentage) and Central Arkansas' Jessica Hays were the only players to record double-digit kills. Hays posted a double-double with 20 kills and 13 digs.
UCA took advantage of Southeastern's struggles to take the first set in decisive fashion. The Sugar Bears served up five aces and hit .407 collectively.
Southeastern rebounded in the second set, fighting through 12 ties and seven lead changes. The trio of Donald (four kills, one solo block),
Veronica Turk (three kills) and
Shelby Devlin (three kills, two block assists) combined to lead the Lady Lions through the back-and-forth action. Donald's solo block tied her for 10th-place on the school's career charts.
Hays, the Southland's kills leader (4.26 per set entering the match), put UCA back in control of the match in the third set. Posting seven kills and a block assists, she enjoyed her best set of the match.
Donald got stronger as the match wore on, recording bettering her kills total in each of the first three sets and posting identical totals in the final two sets.
Southeastern built a 10-5 lead in the fourth and final set, but once the Sugar Bears took the lead, 11-10, they never reliquinshed it. The Lady Lions never let the UCA lead go beyond four points, but couldn't wash out the deficit.
Marissa Collins dealt out 46 assists for UCA while Shelbee Berringer (14), Hays (13) and Scout Brooks (10) recorded double-digit digs.
Senior
Becky Bekelja handed out 30 assists for the Lady Lions and
Megan McMillin posted 12 digs. Southeastern recorded one less dig than the Sugar Bears, but chose to spread the wealth with
Taylor Buckner (nine), Bekelja (seven),
Katie Garrity (seven) and
Cherish Krohn (seven) all recording significant numbers.
Devlin (five block assists), Donald (one solo block and three blocks assists) and
Mikayla Shippy (three block assists) sparked the Lady Lions to 10 team blocks, the fourth-straight and sixth match overall with double-digit blocks.
Southeastern travels to Lamar Tuesday for a 7 p.m. conference contest before returning home for a pair of homecoming-week matches against Stephen F. Austin and in-state rival Northwestern State.
Central Arkansas def. Southeastern La. 25-13,21-25,25-21,25-22
Central Arkansas (22-2, 10-1) (Kills-aces-blocks) - Hays, Jessica 20-0-3; Brooks, Scout 9-4-1; Hammonds, Taylor 8-0-4; Dittrich, Alicia 6-1-1; Nagy, Jessica 6-0-0; Okeke, Nicole 2-0-1; Collins, Marissa 1-2-2; Hunt, Corri 0-2-0; Berringer, Shelbee 0-4-0;
Totals 52-13-8.0. (Assists) - Collins, Marissa 46.
(Dig leaders) - Berringer, Shelbee 14; Hays, Jessica 13; Brooks, Scout 10
Southeastern La. (8-14, 3-9) (Kills-aces-blocks) - Donald, Courtney 17-0-4; Turk, Veronica 6-0-2; Devlin, Shelby 4-0-5; Young, Lindsey 3-0-0; Grayson, Tamra 2-0-2; Bekelja, Becky 1-0-2; Buckner, Taylor 1-0-0; Shippy, Mikayla 1-0-3; Krohn, Cherish 0-3-0; McMillin, Megan 0-2-0;
Totals 35-5-10.0. (Assists) - Bekelja, Becky 30.
(Dig leaders) - McMillin, Megan 12; Buckner, Taylor 9
