2008 Woodie Awards
Lady'Backs go cold on the road
Derek Oxford
Issue date: 10/22/07 Section: Sports
- Page 1 of 1
Coming off a pair of impressive victories this past weekend in Fayetteville, the Arkansas Lady `Back volleyball team packed their bags for Baton Rouge, La., Friday night, only to come up short against the No. 25 LSU Tigers.
The loss dropped the Lady `Backs to 10-11 overall and 4-7 in the Southeastern Conference. LSU improved to 17-4 overall, with a solid 9-3 mark in the league standings.
Unforced errors continue to plague Arkansas in the match. From start to finish, the Lady `Backs ended up with 31 hitting errors along with five service errors and six reception errors.
They only managed to hit .023 as a team, one of their worst performances of the season.
"It was a disappointing loss," Arkansas coach Chris Poole said of LSU, "but we have to regroup. There are no nights off in the SEC…"
Arkansas could just never seem to get anything going against the Tigers. Four players hit for a negative percentage, and the Lady `Backs leader in kills, senior Jessica Dorrell, only accounted for 13 for the entire match.
Senior Ashley Miller led Arkansas with 12 digs against the Tigers, while freshman Heather Royal put together the best day of any Lady `Back. She posted 14 kills, a team-high, while adding 10 digs for a double-double. She also hit .257, leading all Lady `Backs.
If the Lady `Backs could take anything positive away from the match, it would be the fact that they, for the most part, held LSU in check, as the Tigers played one of their worst matches of the year and hit only .194 as a team.
Unfortunately, Arkansas was unable to take advantage of the opportunity.
"We had four players hit negative," Poole said. "What more do you have to say."
The Lady `Backs returned to action Sunday afternoon against the Ole Miss Rebels in Oxford, Miss.
Arkansas lost to the Rebels in the first meeting back in Fayetteville, and Poole wanted his team to regroup and refocus coming off of the LSU loss.
"This is a completely different match up (than LSU)," Poole said. "We know that we need to be more consistent and eliminate our unforced errors. Everyone in the SEC is tough and we're going to have to raise our level of play to meet that."
Ole Miss, meanwhile, stole the first two games from Arkansas Sunday, and made a furious comeback in the third game to put the Lady `Backs away for good to complete the season sweep.
The Rebels are now just a game back of SEC West leader LSU with the victory. They improved to 18-5 overall, along with an 8-4 record in the conference.
Senior Katie Kramer was phenomenal for the Rebels, as she led all scorers with 20 kills while hitting an impressive .372. Her play elevated Ole Miss to a new level as she carried them to the win over Arkansas.
Dorrell and Royal both turned in solid performances despite the loss.
The loss dropped the Lady `Backs to 10-11 overall and 4-7 in the Southeastern Conference. LSU improved to 17-4 overall, with a solid 9-3 mark in the league standings.
Unforced errors continue to plague Arkansas in the match. From start to finish, the Lady `Backs ended up with 31 hitting errors along with five service errors and six reception errors.
They only managed to hit .023 as a team, one of their worst performances of the season.
"It was a disappointing loss," Arkansas coach Chris Poole said of LSU, "but we have to regroup. There are no nights off in the SEC…"
Arkansas could just never seem to get anything going against the Tigers. Four players hit for a negative percentage, and the Lady `Backs leader in kills, senior Jessica Dorrell, only accounted for 13 for the entire match.
Senior Ashley Miller led Arkansas with 12 digs against the Tigers, while freshman Heather Royal put together the best day of any Lady `Back. She posted 14 kills, a team-high, while adding 10 digs for a double-double. She also hit .257, leading all Lady `Backs.
If the Lady `Backs could take anything positive away from the match, it would be the fact that they, for the most part, held LSU in check, as the Tigers played one of their worst matches of the year and hit only .194 as a team.
Unfortunately, Arkansas was unable to take advantage of the opportunity.
"We had four players hit negative," Poole said. "What more do you have to say."
The Lady `Backs returned to action Sunday afternoon against the Ole Miss Rebels in Oxford, Miss.
Arkansas lost to the Rebels in the first meeting back in Fayetteville, and Poole wanted his team to regroup and refocus coming off of the LSU loss.
"This is a completely different match up (than LSU)," Poole said. "We know that we need to be more consistent and eliminate our unforced errors. Everyone in the SEC is tough and we're going to have to raise our level of play to meet that."
Ole Miss, meanwhile, stole the first two games from Arkansas Sunday, and made a furious comeback in the third game to put the Lady `Backs away for good to complete the season sweep.
The Rebels are now just a game back of SEC West leader LSU with the victory. They improved to 18-5 overall, along with an 8-4 record in the conference.
Senior Katie Kramer was phenomenal for the Rebels, as she led all scorers with 20 kills while hitting an impressive .372. Her play elevated Ole Miss to a new level as she carried them to the win over Arkansas.
Dorrell and Royal both turned in solid performances despite the loss.
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