THIBODAUX - The Nicholls State women's volleyball team (10-6, 3-1 Southland Conference) will look to regain a share of first place in the Southland Conference East Division when the Colonels head to conference power Central Arkansas (13-6, 4-0 Southland) on Saturday.

Nicholls heads into the 2 p.m. first serve with the Bears 1.0 match behind Central Arkansas for first place in the East Division.  The Colonels have won two of their last three matches and are fresh off a 3-1 win at Northwestern State in their first road match of the Southland Conference season.

The 2010 Colonels tied the best start to a season in school history, going 8-3 through the first 11 matches of the year, equalling the 1997 school record.  With 13 matches remaining in the regular season, the Colonels need just three more wins to equal their overall and conference win totals from the previous season.

However, the Colonels will have their hands full with the Bears.  UCA, in its first season as a full NCAA Division I team has already established itself as the dominant volleyball program in the Southland Conference.  The Bears rolled to a 16-0 conference record and have not lost a conference match since 2008.  UCA has finished atop the Southland East Division each of the past three seasons and ride a 26-match winning streak in conference play into Saturday's match.

The Bears own the best team hitting percentage in the conference, racking up a .222 team hitting percentage.  Central Arkansas also owns one of the best defenses in the league, limiting opponents to a .163 hitting percentage, the second best mark in the Southland.

However, Nicholls also boasts one of the strongest defenses in the conference.  Through their girst 16 matches of the season, the Colonels have limited opponents to a .158 hitting percentage, the best mark in the league.  Nicholls also ranks second in the conference, and 35th nationally, with a 16.60 dig/set average.  The Colonels are led by junior libero Danielle Daigle, who ranks sixth nationally and first in the conference with a 5.72 dig/set mark.

First serve for the match up between the Colonels and Bears is set for 2 p.m. at the Farris Center in Conway, Ark.  The match with UCA marks the halfway point in the Colonels four-match road trip, following their match with UCA, the Colonels head to Sam Houston State on Oct. 9 and Jackson State on Oct. 12 before returning home on Oct. 15 for their annual "Dig for the Cure" Breast Cancer Awareness match against Texas A&M Corpus Christi.