State sports briefs

— VOLLEYBALL UCA clinches share of Southland title

Central Arkansas (27-4, 15-3) clinched a share of the Southland Conference title with a 25-13, 25-15, 25-16 victory over Stephen F. Austin (21-11, 11-7) on Saturday at the Prince Center in Conway.

Jessica Hays had 11 kills, 10 digs and 3 blocks. Shelbee Berringer had 11 digs and Taylor Hammonds added five blocks. Marissa Collins finished with 38 assists.

The Sugar Bears will share the regular-season title with Sam Houston State. UCA is the No. 1 seed in the Southland tournament, which begins Friday at the Farris Center in Conway. Sam Houston State is the No. 2 seed.

UCA plays No. 8 seed Southeastern Louisiana in a first-round match at 6:30 p.m. Friday. Sam Houston State faces seventh-seed Nicholls State at 11 a.m. No. 3 seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi takes on sixth-seeded Oral Roberts at 1:30 p.m. while No. 4 seed Northwestern (La.) State faces No. 5 seed Stephen F. Austin at 4 p.m.

UAFS finishes undefeated in Heartland

Arkansas-Fort Smith capped off an undefeated Heartland Conference season Saturday with a sweep of the University of Texas of the Permian Basin at the Falcon Dome in Odessa, Texas.

The No. 24 Lady Lions (26-2, 14-0) won the match 25-23, 25-23, 25-19 and became the first conference team to finish undefeated in the regular season since former conference member Montana State University-Billings finished without a loss in 2006.

The Lady Lions are the outright conference champions and will be the No. 1 seed in this week’s conference tournament, which they will host on Friday and Saturday at the Stubblefield Center.

UAFS will play No. 4 seed Texas A&M International (15-11, 7-7) at 5 p.m. on Friday, and No. 2 seed Dallas Baptist (19-8, 11-3) will play No. 3 seed St. Edward’s (17-9, 10-4) at 7:30 p.m. The championship match will be at 1 p.m. on Saturday with the winner earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II South Central Region Tournament.

Junior outside hitter Jordan Pickett led UAFS with 12 kills, while senior middle hitter Heidi Luks and junior middle hitter Jordan Erz each had nine kills. Junior libero Emily McCollum and senior setter Whitney Hale each had 17 and 13 digs, respectively.

Sports, Pages 25 on 11/11/2012

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