Final Stats THIBODAUX, La. – After battling through adversity on Thursday night, the Nicholls State University women's volleyball team was unable to keep pace with league-leading Central Arkansas on Saturday afternoon with a thin lineup, falling in straight sets 25-11, 25-15, 25-23 in Stopher Gym.

With the loss the Colonels fall to 5-17 and 2-10 in league play, dropping their last five in conference play while the Sugar Bears improve to 17-3 and 9-0 in the Southland.

The Colonels were on the brink of pushing Central Arkansas to a fourth set as they were two points away from taking the third, but unfortunately like most of the set the Sugar Bears regrouped and held Nicholls scoreless for the rest of the third to take the match and stay undefeated in conference.

Robin Sill tied for the game high in kills with 11 and hit a staggering .333 on the day, followed by Kayla Burling's 10. Alyse Barclay had 27 assists, as Kalynn Egea had nine digs to lead all players.

Central Arkansas showed its offensive prowess on Saturday, hitting a blistering .348 as a club with 45 kills to just 14 errors on 89 total attempts. Evie Singleton and Kyle Hartman each had 11 kills for UCA, with Singleton hitting .526. Marissa Collins had 24 assists for UCA, with Shelbee Berringer had six digs.

Nicholls pulled within three points of the Sugar Bears in the opening set on one of Kali Schwartz's three kills on the day, but trailing 11-8, UCA went on a massive 9-0 run to go up 20-8 and eventually closed out the match holding Nicholls to just four more points in the set to take set one 25-11.

It got even tougher in the second set as the visitors outscored Nicholls 10-3 before the first charged timeout to Nicholls. UCA got runs of five and three points right after the break to go up 19-6 and eventually 22-9, fending off a small Nicholls rally to go into the intermission up 2-0 with a 25-15 second set victory.

The Colonels put together its best set offensively in the third, hitting .360 with 12 kills and bullied its way to a 9-3 lead. The Colonels maintained that lead getting a combined eight kills by Burling and Sill and three service aces between the two. Nicholls forced a UCA's first timeout of the day leading 19-15, but slowly the Sugar Bears began to cut the deficit scoring three of the next four to pull within two and force a Nicholls timeout. The tide turned officially after Nicholls went up 23-20, unable to hold on to its last lead of the day as a team setting error made it 23-21 allowing the Sugar Bears to serve out the match after an attack error, two aces and Fulani Petties' ninth kill of the match to close the door and sweep the match.

Nicholls will be back in action next Saturday, taking on McNeese State in Lake Charles.