Allison earns Arkansas Invitational MVP honors

Jump to box score FAYETTEVILLE – Junior Amy Allison captured Most Valuable Player honors leading Arkansas to the 2005 Arkansas Invitational tournament title with a three-game win over Memphis Saturday night. Allison hit .420 for the tournament with 25 kills, nine digs and 16 total blocks, collecting seven kills and hitting .357 in the 30-24, 30-23, 30-24 win over Memphis. The Tigers were the tournament runner-up with a 2-1 record, while Arkansas claimed the title with a 3-0 mark. Allison’s teammates got in on the well-rounded tournament performance with senior Karla Crose, junior Denitza Koleva and redshirt freshman Christina Lawrence also earning all-tournament team honors. “I’m very proud of all the performances this weekend,” said Arkansas head coach Chris Poole. “I know that we have some teams left on our schedule who are tougher than what we saw this weekend. What we were looking for this weekend was what we’re doing on our side of the net. I’m very pleased with what I saw this weekend.” Arkansas dominated the match and the tournament winning all three matches in three games. The Lady’Backs hit .300 holding a hard-hitting Tiger team to .074 for the match. The first game seemed to be a battle to see who could hit the ball harder with several teeth-rattling shots from both sides – a trend that continued throughout the night. The Lady’Backs have gone through an interesting pre-season in which the team returned to campus in the best physical shape Poole has seen in recent years. The advanced level of practice competition combined with another year of experience has made selecting a starting lineup tough on the coaching staff. In fact, the Lady’Back skipper implemented this weekend’s lineup Thursday. “The line-up came to me at three in the morning,” he said. “I woke up and said ‘this is it!’ and got up to write it down. I sent it to Holly (Watts) and Jenny (Wilson) and we put it in Thursday.” The Memphis win was the second of the day for Arkansas as the Lady’Backs dispatched of Belmont in three games in the noon contest. A balanced attack paced by Crose, Lawrence and Koleva led Arkansas to a 30-18-, 30-28, 30-22 win. Koleva lead all hitters with 12 kills and recorded 13 digs for Arkansas. Lawrence and Crose added 10 kills each with Lawrence hitting a match-best .643. Arkansas returns to the court hosting the C&C Services Invitational Friday and Saturday, Sept. 2-3, in Barnhill Arena. For more information and tickets please call the Lady Razorback Ticket Office at 57-LBACK or log on to LADYBACKS.COM.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM