The UCA volleyball team (16-4, 6-1 SLC) extended its winning streak to six Oct. 13 with a 3-0 sweep of the University of the Incarnate Word (4-15, 2-7 SLC) 3-0.
This tallied the Sugar Bears ninth sweep of the season in another dominating performance.
Incarnate Word began the match with the first point, but UCA responded in a big way by taking 6 of the next 7 points to jump ahead.
After the Cardinals made a short run to regain some ground, UCA took momentum again with a 7-0 run that was capped on a kill by sophomore middle blocker Amari Mitchell. This gave the Sugar Bears a 15-4 lead in the set and they never looked back.
They continued their strong play, taking 7 of the final 8 points, and winning the set 25-7.
The Sugar Bears finished the set with five kills from senior outside hitter Haley Tippett and senior right side Samantha Anderson.
UCA picked up where they left off in the second set, taking 5 of the first 6 points and jumping out to a 17-9 lead. The Cardinals again looked to respond, and attempted to take control with a 3-0 run, but the UCA offense continued to roll.
The Sugar Bears used a 5-1 run and a kill from Tippett to close the set 25-18. Tippett hit 55 percent in the set and contributed seven kills while sophomore setter Bailey Waddington delivered 14 assists for the second consecutive set.
The third and final set proved to be the most competitive as the teams traded points leading to a 16-16 tie. The game returned to its opening trend, however, and the Sugar Bears used a 6-1 run to regain momentum and eventually close the match 25-19.
This was one of UCA’s cleanest game of the season, as they only had nine errors while hitting at 48 percent. Tippett led the Sugar Bears’ attack with 16 kills, followed by Anderson with 14 kills. Mitchell added six kills to go along with three blocks.
“I think these wins give us a lot of confidence,” Tippett said. “We haven’t been winning, we’ve been winning as a team. Everyone’s bought into the season and and we are playing cohesively well together.”
The Sugar Bears are currently second in the conference behind only Stephen F. Austin University.
UCA will look to continue its success Oct. 18 and 20 as they host Nicholls State University and New Orleans University in the Prince Center for conference play.
