Arkansas volleyball fact sheet 11 - at South Carolina and Florida

WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON?The University of Arkansas volleyball team went 1-1 in Southeastern Conference action this week. The Razorbacks lost at Ole Miss Wednesday but captured a thrilling five-set win over Auburn Sunday. Arkansas trailed the Tigers 0-2 and was down 14-21 in the third set before rallying to win the match. Senior Christina Lawrence paced Arkansas with a career-best 22 kills as one of three players with double-figure kills. Sophomore Heather Royal tied her career-best with 19 and freshman Kelli Stipanovich had 11. Arkansas was nearly perfect in the set five win with 11 kills, no hitting errors and a .550 hitting percentage. The Razorbacks return to the road this weekend traveling to South Carolina and No. 7 Florida.SEC SEASON PART IIThe Razorbacks have begun the second half of the 2008 Southeastern Conference schedule. Arkansas opened SEC play Sept. 19 with a five-set win at Auburn and repeated that feat with a five-set win against the Tigers in Fayetteville Oct. 26. Arkansas has nine regular season matches remaining.LAWRENCE GETS BETTER WITH AGEChristina Lawrence posted a career-best 22 kills leading Arkansas to a come-from-behind win over Auburn Sunday. Lawrence hit a team-leading .373 for the week with 32 kills and averaged 4.00 points-per-set. Lawrence finished the weekend with 989 career kills, just 11 shy of the 1,000-kill plateau. She has tallied double-figure kills in 11 of the 16 matches she has played in this year.LAWRENCE MOVES UP THE LISTSenior Christina Lawrence is on pace to become the 13th player in program history to reach 1,000 career kills. Lawrence moved up to number 13 and has 989 career kills. She and needs just 11 kills to reach 1,000. Here’s the top 14 list.

LAWRENCE PART IIIn addition to moving up on the career kills list, Lawrence is moving up in other areas as well. She is sixth this week in career attack percentage, hitting .277 and is 14th in attack attempts with 2,364. Lawrence ranks 17 in kills-per-set with 2.58 for her career and ranks 10th in career block assists with 303. She is 12th in total blocks with 315 and 20th in blocks-per-set with 0.82. Lawrence ranks 13th in career points with 1,157.5 and 18th with 3.01 points-per-set. Finally, Lawrence is 15th in sets played with 384 and 19th in matches played with 104.OTHERS IN THE RANKINGSSeveral other Razorbacks show up in the career stats as well. Kelli Stipanovich is 9th in KPS with 3.12 and Heather Royal is 16th with 2.60. Lindsay Scanlan (6th, 1681) and Caira Dortch (8th, 1095) are both in the top 10 for assists and assists-per-set. Scanlan ranks tied for 13th for service aces and Heather Royal ranks 12th in service-aces per-set (0.27), 11th in digs-per-set (2.47) and 17th in PPS with 3.05. Senior Yun Tang is ninth in blocks-per-set (1.15) and tied for 19th in block solos (18).ARKANSAS IN THE SEC STATSThe Razorbacks continue to move around in the SEC stats. This week, Arkansas ranks fifth in SEC only matches for hitting percentage. They are 11th in opponent hitting percentage, seventh in assists, kills and blocks, 10th in service aces and ninth in digs. In league-only matches, senior Christina Lawrence ranks seventh in hitting percentage and in kills. Freshman Kelli Stipanovich is 10th in kills. Caira Dortch (No. 6) and Lindsay Scanlan (No. 8) both rank in the assists category and Phoebe Bautista is ninth in digs. In all matches, Arkansas checks in eighth in hitting percentage, ninth in assists and kills, seventh in blocks and 10th in aces and digs. Individually Lawrence is ninth in hitting percentage and Stipanovich is ninth in kills-per-set. Dortch is sixth and Scanlan ninth in aps while Bautista is eighth in dps. Senior Yun Tang checks in fourth in blocks-per-set in all matches.ABOUT SOUTH CAROLINAThe Gamecocks enter the weekend with a 16-6 overall record and a 7-5 SEC record. Carolina dropped both matches in five sets this weekend falling to Georgia and LSU. Ivana Kujundzic leads the team with 295 kills and 3.64 kills-per-set. She is hitting .256 for the year. Belita Slaters is hitting a team-high .391 with 239 kills. She leads the team wit 59 total blocks an d 0.77 blocks-per-set.ARKANSAS VERSUS THE GAMECOCKSArkansas leads the all-time series with South Carolina 14-8 and have won five of the last six meetings. The one loss? Arkansas lost in five in Fayetteville Sept. 28 (22-25, 25-22, 2=25, 25-23, 11-15). Arkansas was paced by a career-best 21 kills from freshman Kelli Stipanovich and the Razorbacks had four players in double-figures. Arkansas was slightly out-hit (.182-.163) but out-dug (89-81) and out-blocked (12-7) the Gamecocks.ABOUT NO. 11 FLORIDAThe 11th-ranked Gators suffered their first SEC loss of the season Sunday falling in five sets at Georgia. The Gators out-hit Georgia but the Bulldogs threw up 17 team blocks stealing the win. Florida ranks first or second in four statistical categories and is in the five in the league in all categories this year. Kelly Murphy leads the team with 230 kills, 3.29 kps and a.382 hitting percentage. Teammate Kristy Jaeckel is second with 226 kills, 3.23 kps and a .245 hitting percentage.ARKANSAS VERSUS THE GATORSArkansas is just 2-25 lifetime against the Gators. The Razorbacks fell in three to Florida in Fayetteville earlier this year (19-25, 17-25, 21-25). Freshman Kelli Stipanovich paced the team with 11 kills while senior Christina Lawrence added 10 for the Razorbacks.RAZORBACKS ON THE RADIOThe Arkansas Razorback volleyball team returned to the KXUA airways this season for their single match at Auburn. The Razorbacks went live at 6 p.m. Central from Auburn, Ala. KXUA is 88.3 FM on the dial in Northwest Arkansas. The broadcast also aired live on ArkansasRazorbacks.com. Jeri Thorpe provides the play-by-play along with Stephen McGown for your color analysis. Here is the complete KXUA broadcast schedule for 2008:DATE OPPONENT TIME RESULTSept. 19 at Auburn 6 p.m. W, 3-2Oct. 10 Alabama 7 p.m. L, 1-3Oct. 12 Mississippi State 1:30 p.m. W, 3-0Oct. 17 at Kentucky 6 p.m. L, 0-3Oct. 19 at Tennessee 12:30 p.m. L, 1-3Nov. 7 Tennessee 7 p.m.Nov. 9 Kentucky 1:30 p.m.Nov. 14 at Mississippi State 7 p.m.Nov. 21 LSU 7 p.m.Nov. 23 Ole Miss 7 p.m.All Postseason matchesUP NEXTThe Razorbacks have a road matches at South Carolina and No. 7 Florida this week. Arkansas returns home hosting Tennessee and Kentucky Nov. 7 and 9, respectively before a trip to Mississippi State and Alabama in the final SEC road series. Arkansas wraps up the regular season hosting LSU, Georgia and Ole Miss.