SPRINGFIELD – It took two and a half hours for Saturday's contest between Missouri State and Central Arkansas to be decided, and in the end it was the visiting Sugar Bears from UCA who came out on top of a 3-2 match on day two of the Dr. Mary Jo Wynn Invitational at Hammons Student Center.

UCA (3-0) won by set scores of 25-17, 25-22, 23-25, 19-25 and 15-12 to claim the championship. Missouri State (1-1) and Oral Roberts (1-1) will meet at 1 p.m. Sunday in the final match of the event.

Central Arkansas held the Bears to a .080 attack efficiency over the first two sets in building its lead and led 14-11 in the third after Missouri State bolted to a 10-3 advantage. MSU pulled even at 15 and the set was tied six more times, the last at 23-all. From there, Deja Bickers had a kill followed by Morgan Sprague and Maddy Bushnell teaming up for the winning block.

Manuela Ibarguen had two of her career-high 23 kills in a 4-0 run to lead 8-4 in the fourth set, and the Bears never trailed after that as the defense stepped up and limited UCA to a .000 hitting percentage.

Missouri State grabbed an 8-6 lead in the fifth set but was unable to recover from a 4-0 UCA run in response. The Bears evened the score at 10-10 but never pulled ahead as the Sugar Bears hit .381 in the final period.

Bickers finished with 17 kills and 17 digs, Ibarguen added 15 digs for the double-double, and Kate Owen had 21 digs. Bickers and Teagan Polcovich each served two aces, and Azyah Green led the team with six blocks.