The University of Mississippi Athletics

Friday, September 13
Conway, ARK.
6:30 PM

Ole Miss

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Central Arkansas

4-4

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Ole Miss
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Central Ark.
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OMUCA

McRoberts’ Returns to Conway Triumphantly in Win Over UCA

9/13/2019 | Volleyball

Led by a duo of outside hitters, Ole Miss picks up its 5th-straight contest

CONWAY, Ark.   – In a welcoming return for head coach Steven McRoberts to his former coaching stop Central Arkansas (4-4), Ole Miss Volleyball (5-3) grinded out a five-set thriller over the Sugar Bears (22-25, 25-13, 16-25, 25-19, 15-12), picking up their fifth straight win in the process. 
 
Outside hitters Anna Bair and Emily Stroup each tallied 20 kills or more, a season first for the Rebels. Bair led the way with a career-best 22, finishing the match on a .280 hitting percentage. Stroup added 21, while classmate Nayo Warnell added seven, hitting at a stellar .538 efficiency. 
 
Bair posted her first collegiate double-double, registering 12 digs. Warnell and junior setter Lauren Bars each tallied seven blocks. In Friday morning's match, Warnell reached a program milestone, becoming just the fourth Rebel to record 300 career blocks. She now has 307. Bars nearly tallied a triple-double, dishing out 52 assists and adding eight digs. 
 
Senior libero Nicole Purcell and sophomore defensive specialist Avery Bugg finished with 20 and 16 digs, respectively. Bugg also turned in a career-high with four aces. 
 
 Things were back-and-forth in the opening stanza, as the Rebels and the Sugar Bears traded points and endured ties at each the 6, 7, 8, and 10 point marks. UCA began to pull away, leading by three before the Rebels picked up a pair of points via kills from the senior duo of Warnell and Stroup. Two Sugar Bear points later, Bair responded with back-to-back rockets to trim the deficit to one, and a kill from Stroup evened things at 16. 
 
Warnell added another slam to bring Ole Miss into the lead, but it was short lived as UCA took advantage of a service error to put things back at a 17-17 stalemate. The three continued to produce late, as Bair and Stroup put Ole Miss up 20-18. The cushion was short lived, as the Sugar Bears knotted things up again at 20 all after back-to-back Rebel miscues. 
 
Another pair of Ole Miss errors put UCA in control, who went on to grind out the set at 25-22 and take a 1-0 lead in the match. Stroup posted six slams in the opening frame, while Bair added five as the two squads went through 14 total ties.  
 
The Rebels kept a steady cushion in the second set, building a hefty lead of 10 through middle to late stages of the frame. Bugg served the Rebels on a six-point run, including an ace, to put Ole Miss comfortably in control at 19-9. 
 
The Sugar Bears began to threaten, narrowing the lead after four straight points, but the Rebels quickly silenced the threat and evened the match with a 25-13 mark.
 
UCA took early control of the third frame with a three-point advantage, building that lead to 15-11 as the squads reached the halfway point of the set. In a reversal of the second game, it was the Rebels this time who trailed by a wide margin, falling behind and eventually succumbing to a 16-25 score. 
 
A Bugg ace and kills from the Bair/Stroup/Warnell trio put Ole Miss up early in the fourth at 7-1.  The Sugar Bears clawed back into competition, trimming the lead to two at 9-7. Kills from senior Leah Mulkey, Bair sprinkled through the next sequence of points, boosting the Rebs' cushion to five at 17-12. 
 
Ole Miss grinded through the set 25-19 to even things and force a fifth.
 
After trailing by a point in the finale, a Sugar Bear error sandwiched between kills from Bair and Stroup put the Rebels in the driver's seat, leading 7-5. The lead was short lived, as UCA used a pair of kills from outside Abbie Harry and a Rebel attack error to retake control at 8-7. 
 
The back-and-forth continued, as sophomore Aubrey Sultemeier used a tip at the net to accompany a Bars ace and put the Rebs in front 10-8. After a pair of Bair kills kept Ole Miss with a two-point lead, it was a fitting finish that a block from Warnell and Bars sealed the victory for the Rebels 15-12.
 
UP NEXT
Ole Miss wraps up the weekend Saturday, taking on Oral Roberts in the finale. First serve is slated for 2:30 p.m. The match will be available via Facebook Live and can be followed via live stats. 
 
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Follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissVB, Facebook at Ole Miss Volleyball@olemissvb on Instagram. You can also follow head coach Steven McRoberts on Twitter @CoachMcRoberts
 
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