The University of Central Arkansas Sugar Bears volleyball team faced off against the Florida Gulf Coast University Eagles on Friday Oct. 10. The Sugar Bears took a 0-3 loss in a competitive game, which put their current conference record at 4-1 and their total record at 7-8.

In all three sets the final score was 22-25.

Coach John Newberry said both teams were undefeated in conference coming into this match, so the Sugar Bears knew it was going to be a tough and competitive game.

Senior outside hitter Samantha Cousins tallied a total of 13 kills over the course of the game with 26 total swings, putting her kill percentage at 50%. 

Newberry said, “[I am] really proud of Samantha Cousins today. 13 kills hitting 500 off 26 swings, absolutely incredible, so really proud of her in this match. It’s a great job by her.”

Newberry said, “We had a lot of successful things.”

Junior rightside hitter Gabby Tuiaana followed behind Cousins in kills with nine throughout the game. Tuiaana led the team in blocks with a total of three. Senior libero Alexis McDaniel led the team in digs racking up 17 and senior setter Caylan Koons tallied seven digs and 29 assists.

Coming into this game, the Sugar Bears were on a five game win streak, which began when they played the Oklahoma University Sooners at Home on September 21.

Cousins said “I think we’re just ready to fight now. [FGCU] came out, they did a great job, they executed while we didn’t in some areas… figuring out and fine tuning what we need to work on to do better is probably going to be the next step.”

In regards to the loss, Newberry said “I’m going to ask the team to be resilient in their next match, we’ve got to let this one go. Let the sting hurt but we’ve got to work harder for the next one, execute at a higher level… we’re going to have a little gut check… but being a goldfish and letting it go is going to be really important for us.”

Despite their loss, the Sugar Bears seem to keep up their morale and energy both on and off of the court. 

Cousins said that “I think we realized how valuable it is to have that energy and how far that energy can take us. So if we’re down [on our energy] that game is not going to be well; if we’re excited, if we’re hype we know that we’re going to go out and perform. We just feed off of each other… [that energy] just naturally comes out.”

The Sugar Bear’s next home match is Friday, October 24th against Bellarmine at 6:00 in the Prince Center. This is another conference game and is also the “Nightmare on Bruce Street” night where there is trick or treating in the lobby before first serve.

All UCA athletic matches can be streamed live on ESPN+.