Arkansas Volleyball Fact Sheet #11

Arkansas hits the roadThe Lady Razorbacks return to the road as Southeastern Conference play winds down. Arkansas travels first to South Carolina then makes the trip to Gainesville for a rematch with the Gators. It is the first of two consecutive SEC road weekends as the Lady’Backs make their way to Auburn and Georgia for the last regular season road trip Nov. 9 and 11, respectively.Final home standAs noted above, the season is quickly winding down. Arkansas follows up back-to-back road weekends with a final SEC home weekend Nov. 16 and 18, hosting Tennessee and Kentucky, respectively. Arkansas breaks from SEC action hosting Connecticut in the final regular season match of the year Nov. 24 at 1:30 p.m.Streaky Lady’BacksThe 2007 season has been one of streaks. Arkansas opened the year with a loss but then won six in a row, rolling through much of the non-conference schedule. Next, Arkansas went on an eight-match losing streak – the longest in school history. The Lady’Backs then won four of its next five before dropping four in a row. Miller owns Arkansas digs recordSenior Ashley Miller holds the Arkansas record for digs with 1960 (through 10-28). In fact, she holds all of Arkansas’ dig records. Miller has the match record with 36 against Ole Miss (10-1-06), single season with 548 (2005), career with 19191 and climbing, career digs per game with 4.34 (through 10-28-07) and was the digs per game leader in 2004, 2005 and 2006. But where do those numbers rank in the NCAA? The single-match record for digs is 62 (Jessica Strama, McNeese St. vs. Texas-Arlington, Oct. 13, 2006); the single-season record under the current scoring system is 924 (Paula Gentil, Minnesota, 2004 [138 games]); the career record is 2,791 (Paula Gentil, Minnesota, 2002-05 [506 games]; season digs per game is 7.68 (Amanda McCormick, Ball St., 2006 [852 digs in 111 games]) and career 5.80 (Amanda McCormick, Nebraska/Ball St., 2003-04; 05-06 [2,297 digs in 396 games)].Miller sneaks up on SEC recordIn addition to the Arkansas records, Miller is sneaking up on the SEC record for digs as well. The current mark of 2037 is held by Kentucky’s Jenni Casper (2003-06). Miller is 77 digs from tying that mark. Arkansas has seven matches remaining and if all go the minimum three games (21 games) Miller could break the mark at her current pace. She is averaging 4.59 dpg and that multiplied by the 21 games would give her about 96 more digs – well over the SEC record.Senior Day approachingArkansas hosts Senior Day Sunday, Nov. 18, prior to the Kentucky match. The Lady’Backs will celebrate the accomplishments of seniors Kelli Cole, Jessica Dorrell and Ashley Miller who will be playing in their final SEC match.Setters move up on career listsArkansas has used two setters to run the offense for several seasons and not since the first four years of the program have the Lady Razorbacks had a setter who set nearly every ball for four seasons (Tina Rico). That being said, reaching statistical milestones as a setter is difficult when you split time. Both of Arkansas current setters, Nicole Martin and Lindsay Scanlan, have surpassed, the 1,000-assist milestone. Although no where near the record of 5,886 assists held by Rico, 1,000 is still a good number. In fact, only seven setters have 1,000 or more assists. Martin slid over 1,000 career assists during the Northern Iowa match and has 1,329 while Scanlan stands at 1,206.Arkansas in the SEC stats – SEC-Only matchesThe Lady’Backs’ 4-10 mark in the SEC, not surprisingly, finds the team at the bottom of most of the SEC statistics as well. Here’s a look at where Arkansas ranks: 10th for hitting percentage (.173); eighth in opponent hitting percentage (.228); eighth in assists (13.21), ninth in kills (14.32); ninth in service aces (1.09); and 10th in digs (15.81). On the bright side, Arkansas is second overall in blocks with a 3.04 block per game average.Arkansas in the SEC stats – All matchesArkansas’ numbers are a bit better in all matches (conference and non-conference). The Lady’Backs are eighth in hitting percentage (.201); eighth in assists (13.40); 10th in opponent hitting percentage (.221); eighth in kills (14.68); sixth in service aces (1.60) and 11th in digs (14.78). Surprisingly, the Lady’Backs fall to fourth in all-match blocks with a 2.89 block per game average.Freudenrich tops in the SECDespite Arkansas’ win-loss woes, freshman Sarah Freudenrich is making a name for herself. The Broken Arrow, Okla., native ranks second in the SEC (in SEC-only matches) for blocks per game with a 1.60 bpg average. Freudenrich has 12 solos and 73 block assists for 85.0 total blocks this year. Freudenrich is second in all matches averaging 1.49 blocks per game with 22 solos and 114 assists for 136.0 total blocks.Dorrell ranks in kills per gameSenior Jessica Dorrell finds herself ranked third this week in kills per game. The Aledo, Texas, native is averaging 4.11 kills per game in all matches. Dorrell ranks fifth in SEC-only contests with 3.96 kpg this year. Dorrell is also seventh in both league and SEC-only matches with 0.38 service aces per game.More about DorrellDorrell posted back-to-back double-doubles last weekend against Alabama and Miss State. Dorrell recorded 13 kills and a career-best 20 digs against the Crimson Tide. She added a career-best 30 kills and 13 digs against Mississippi State. She has six double-doubles this year.Miller ranks in digs per gameSenior Ashley Miller leads Arkansas in digs and ranks seventh in the SEC for digs per game. The Vacaville, Calif., native is averaging 4.57 dpg with 242 digs in SEC only matches. Miller ranks sixth in all matches as well averaging 4.59 dpg with 404 total digs this year.Arkansas is the SEC’s odd team outThe SEC has 11 teams that sponsor volleyball (Vanderbilt does not have a team). Each year there is one team who does not rotate through the conference schedule with a travel partner. This year, that team is Arkansas. As a result, the Lady Razorbacks do not play a mid-week conference match. In fact, Arkansas has only one match this year that does not fall on a weekend and that is a Tuesday match against Oral Roberts Aug. 28. It also means that instead of facing Mississippi and Mississippi State in the same weekend or Alabama and Auburn, the schedule is much more varied – and travel is much more interesting.Another SEC reminderThe SEC eliminated the conference tournament last year instead opting for a double-round robin format in which teams play each other twice during the course of the season. That format continues for the 2007 season.Can I get on the internet please?Every Lady Razorback volleyball match will be carried on the internet in some capacity this year. Every Lady Razorback home match will have live stats, a live audio broadcast and a live video broadcast of the event. Fans can find those at LADYBACKS.COM. All road SEC matches will have audio on LADYBACKS.COM and most will have live stats on either the host site or LADYBACKS.COM. The radio broadcasts for all road SEC matches can also be heard in the Fayetteville area on KXUA, 88.3 FM.