State sports briefs
GOLF Razorbacks third in Illinois Led by a 1-under 69 from senior Sebastian Cappelen, the No. 7 Arkansas men’s team improved by seven shots on the second day of the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational to move into third place at the Olympia Fields Country Club North Course in Olympia Fields, Ill.
The Razorbacks followed Friday’s team score of 294 with a 287 on Saturday, which was good for the second-best round of the day. No. 1 Alabama (281277) has a 21-stroke lead heading into today with No. 3 Texas (292-287) holding onto second place by two strokes over Arkansas.
Sophomore Taylor Moore moved to eighth place after a 1-over 71. Redshirt sophomore
VOLLEYBALL Arkansas wins tournament Despite a loss to Texas State on Saturday evening, Arkansas won the tournament title at this weekend’s Golden Hurricane Classic in Tulsa. The Razorbacks (6-3) finished the event with a 2-1 weekend record with victories over Northern Colorado and host Tulsa.
Arkansas ended its weekend with a three-set loss (25-21, 25-18, 25-22) to Texas State. Junior Meredith Hays paced the Razorback offense with a match-high 17 kills and had three digs.
Sugar Bears drop two Central Arkansas finished off the 2013 Hilton Garden Inn/Homewood Suites Airport Volleyball Classic with a pair of losses Saturday. The Sugar Bears fell to third-ranked Penn State 3-0 before dropping a 3-2 decision to Marquette later in the day.
The Sugar Bears kept the first two sets close against Penn State, winners of four of the past six national titles, falling 25-20 and 25-22 before the Nittany Lions (5-1) pulled away in the third to pick up the 25-10 victory. Jessica Nagy led the way offensively for Central Arkansas (7-3) with nine kills. Marissa Collins had 30 assists, and Shelbee Berringer had 15 digs.
In the second match, Marquette (4-3) won 25-23, 23-25, 23-25, 25-20, 15-11. Nagy and Heather Schnars led UCA with 13 kills each. Collins had 48 assists and Berringer collected 26 digs.
UAFS down Newman in 5 sets Arkansas-Fort Smith rallied from a two-set deficit to beat Newman University in a five-set match Saturday at the Stubblefield Center in Fort Smith.
UAFS won 25-11, 25-27, 22-25, 25-15, 15-11 to remain undefeated in the Heartland Conference. It was the second consecutive victory for UAFS (4-2, 2-0).
SOCCER Harding plays to tie Harding and Texas Wesleyan played to a 0-0 tie Saturday at Stevens Field in Searcy.
It was the second consecutive tie for Harding’s men’s team (0-1-2), which went 2-2 against Lyon four days earlier.
CROSS COUNTRY Trojans victorious in Texas UALR claimed victory Saturday morning at the Texas-Arlington Gerald Richey Invitational.
Newcomer George Gathuru won his first race at the Division 1 level when he completed the 4-mile course in 19:28.4, eight seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. UALR got a third-place finish from John Vodacek and a sixth-place showing from Markus Pearson, who made it in under 20 minutes. Junior Shaun Koehn placed eighth overall in 20:00.9, and Joseph Aguilar rounded out the Trojans scorers with a 15th-place effort of 20:37.4.
On the women’s side, sophomore Emma Dahl led UALR’s fourth-place finish by placing third in 17:52.0 over the 5K course. Tori Copeland was the next Trojans finisher, taking 32nd place in 20:26.8.