With a nail-biting performance, the Sugar Bears defeated Southern Illinois University, 3-2, at the Prince Center Sept. 9, as a part of the Central Arkansas Invitational.
Fresh off three losses at the Flo Hyman Collegiate Cup on Sept. 2 and Sept. 3, this comeback was refreshing for the Sugar Bears.
“This is a huge reverse week for us. I’m really, really proud of the team and the way that they bounced back,” coach John Newberry said.
The Sugar Bears had a rocky start by ending the first two sets with losses, 23-11 and 25-17.
Newberry admitted that he accidentally set the team back with an incorrect lineup in the second set, but the team pulled through.
“I feel like they had my back. I’ve always got their back but they just took it to a whole different level … I saw towards the end of the second set how bad they wanted it. We fixed it all, got the right lineup in there, got the match ups we wanted, and it was just a matter of a heart and execution game from there on out,” Newberry said.
The team overcame the minor setback and won the third set, 25-20. Once the third set began, the Sugar Bears were playing right alongside Southern Illinois.
Sophomore and outside hitter Jamiryana Hall said, “We kind of had to face adversity and just go with it. As soon as we got to the third set, we got back to the lineup that we’re used to, that we usually play and we just ran with it.”
The Sugar Bears completed the hard fought match with two additional sets, 25-21 and 15-11.
Hall led the Sugar Bears in kills, alongside graduate student and middle hitter Kendall Haywood. Both players had 13 kills each.
“This week I’ve had a pretty good, consistent weekend … So I’m just trying to build on being real consistent and not go down,” Hall said.
Although Haywood and Hall led in kills, Newberry said there was no specific player that stood out more than another.
“Honest to God, it was really a team effort. When somebody was a little bit down, then we picked it back up,” Newberry said. “It wasn’t a one man show. They all piggybacked off of each other and fought as a team.”
Although the game against Southern Illinois was not a conference game, Newberry feels confident in the team’s ability to compete in the ASUN Conference after its performance.
“Southern Illinois is a very, very good team. They got some really, really well-put, productive members on their squad,” Newberry said. “We have to remember that because that would be a really good conference opponent if they were in our conference. They would match up very well. Knowing that we can perform like that and execute the way that we did is going to be really, really important from here on out.”
Hall is proud of the team’s efforts and believes it proved that the Sugar Bears have a good season ahead of them.
“We really showed grit and heart because we were down 2-0 and we literally dug ourselves out of the ground … If anything, my team showed that they got the heart just to keep going,” Hall said. “I think we’re going to build off of it and take it to the next game.”
The Sugar Bears will take on the Little Rock Trojans, Memphis Tigers and UAPB Lions at the Tiger Brawl in Memphis, Tenn. Sept. 16 and Sept. 17.