The UCA Sugar Bear Volleyball team had a mostly positive showing at the Tulsa Invitational, winning its matches against UT Arlington and Oral Roberts University, but failed to follow through in the last game against host University of Tulsa. 

UT ARLINGTON

The Bears faced the University of Texas at Arlington first, with a 10 a.m. game on Sept. 1.

The game was back-and-forth and action-packed. The first set saw the Mavericks develop a slim 12-10 lead to start the game, but the Sugar Bears came back, leading 18-16.

Both teams were fighting and playing hard, and the set went past the usual 25-point mark. The Sugar Bears won the first set 27-25. 

Set two was a back-and-forth battle and neither team could gain an advantage until the final few points as the Mavericks pulled away late to take the second set 25-20. 

Both teams had one win. 

The third set saw both teams combine for 60 points. The Sugar Bears needed 31 points to take a 2-1 series lead; they won the set 31-29. 

The Sugar Bear offense struggled in the fourth set as the Mavericks jumped out to a 10-4 lead, and they never looked back, tying the series 2-2 with a 25-17 win. 

It all came down to the game-deciding fifth set. The Sugar Bears fought hard to a 7-5 lead and rode that momentum to a set-winning 15-11 victory, securing a 3-2 series win. 

The Sugar Bears tallied 49 kills as a team and junior outside hitter Lilly Taylor had a team-leading 17 kills followed by senior outside hitter Charleston Tidwell’s 11 kills. Sophomore setter Caylan Koons tallied a team-high of 40 assists.

ORAL ROBERTS

The next game in the tournament was at 7 p.m. against the Oral Roberts Eagles. As both teams fought for points in the highly aggressive first set.

Going into a UCA timeout, the Eagles led 18-16. The Sugar Bears took the lead 20-19, which forced an Oral Roberts timeout.

UCA won the first set 25-23. 

The second set was all Sugar Bears as they jumped out to an 11-0 lead and won the set 25-16. 

Set three was the same story. UCA secured a 9-4 lead and rode the momentum from there, winning the third set 25-15 and sweeping the Eagles 3-0.

The Sugar Bears had 37 kills with Taylor and Tidwell combining for 18 kills with nine kills each. Junior middle blocker Allison Holloway and outside and freshman right-side hitter Gabby Tuiaana combined for 12 kills with six kills each. 

TULSA

The Sugar Bears final game of the tournament was Saturday at 2 p.m. against the hometown Tulsa Hurricane. 

Both teams were playing hard in the first set as going into a Sugar Bears timeout, the score was 16 a piece. 

Tulsa’s home-court advantage helped them get the first set win 25-23. 

The second set was a game of runs as UCA went on a run to tie the game at 14 apiece, then Tulsa went on a run to retake the lead 18-14.

Then UCA used a 6-2 run to tie the game again at 20-20 and a 3-1 run to take the lead 23-21. 

The Sugar Bears went on to win the game 25-22, tying the game at 1-1.

The Golden Hurricane dominated the set 25-8. 

With just 25 points for Tulsa to win the game, the Sugar Bears tried to force a fifth set. 

At one point, the game was tied at 11-11. 

Tulsa scored nine points to UCA’s six, leading to a Sugar Bears timeout with the score 20-17 in Tulsa’s favor. 

The Hurricane went on to win the series 25-19, winning the game three sets to one. 

UCA tallied 42 kills as a team with Holloway’s team leading 12 kills. 

The team leaves Tulsa with a two to one record in the tournament. The Sugar Bears’ next game will be 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 15 against the North Alabama Lions in the North Alabama Volleyball Classic.