Final Stats Box Score and Play-By-Play

CONWAY, Ark. - The Nicholls State University women's volleyball team (10-7, 3-2 Southland Conference) battled conference power Central Arkansas (14-6, 5-0 Southland) through 14 tie scores and six lead changes on Sunday, and the Colonels put a scare into the Bears in each of the three sets.  But, in the end, UCA was able to hold on to win its 27th consecutive Southland Conference match, 3-0 by scores of 25-21, 25-22, 25-22.

Nicholls was led by sophomore outside hitter Jennifer Brandt who tallied a team-high 14 kills and a .406 hitting percentage (14-1-32).  Sophomore middle blocker Jasmine Harris helped the Nicholls cause with a team-best .462 hitting percentage (6-0-13).  The Nicholls defense was led by sophomore middle blocker Jessica Addicks who had a hand in four of the Colonels' 8.0 total team blocks and junior libero Danielle Daigle who had a team-best 17 digs. 

However, the Bears saw three players with double digit kills and hit .295 (56-17-132) as a team to outpace the Colonels .231 (40-13-117) attack.  Jessica Hays and Chole Smith had 12 kills each and Taylor Hammonds added 11 more for the Bears who also got help from Marissa Collins .750 hitting percentage (6-0-8), Jessica Nagy's nine kills and Cristin Curl's 22 digs.

After staying neck-and-neck with UCA in the early part of the first set, the Colonels fell victim to a UCA run.  After tying the match at 8-8, the Bears went on a 10-3 run to take a 17-11 lead.  However, the Colonels battled back with a 9-6 run to pull within three at 23-20.  Unfortunately, for Nicholls, the Bears put the set away and claimed a 25-21 win to go up 1-0. 

That would prove to be the theme of the day with the Colonels falling victim to an 8-5 run midway through the second set before battling back and falling short 25-22 in the second.

The third set would be much more competitive, with seven tie scores and three lead changes taking place.  Neither side could pull away early on.  The largest lead through the first half of the third set was only two when UCA went up 12-10.  However, the Bears went on a 9-2 run to make it 19-12 and take a seven-point lead.  However, the Colonels refused to go quietly.  Nicholls won the next six points as two kills by Addicks, one by Brandt, a pair of aces by senior outside hitter Elise King and an attack error on UCA pulled the Colonels to within one at 19-18.

However, UCA returned to form and held off the Colonels the rest of the way, closing with a 6-4 run to take the 25-22 third set win.

The Colonels will return to action on Oct. 9 when they visit Sam Houston State before concluding their four-match road trip at Jackson State in their final non-conference match of the season on Oct. 12.  The Colonels will return to Nicholls on Oct. 15 when they host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in their annual Dig for the Cure Breast Cancer Awareness match.