Arkansas Volleyball Fact Sheet #14

Home Sweet HomeThe Lady Razorbacks wrap up the 2007 season hosting non-conference Connecticut Saturday, Nov. 24.
Dorrell earns SEC second-team honors Senior Jessica Dorrell earned Southeastern Conference second-team honors. Dorrell, a 6-0 outside hitter from Aledo, Texas, earned second-team all-SEC honors while Freudenrich, a 6-4 middle blocker from Broken Arrow, Okla., earned an all-freshman team selection. “I couldn’t be more proud of either of these players,” said Arkansas head coach Chris Poole. “Both honors are well deserved.” Dorrell capped off her SEC career last weekend finishing the season with 319 kills, a team-best 4.04 kills per game, 28 assists, 24 service aces, 201 digs and 57 total blocks. She ranked among the SEC leaders in kills per game and service aces the entire season. The honor is the second league award for Dorrell. She earned selection to the all-SEC freshman team in 2004. In addition, she was awarded SEC weekly honors twice in 2007. Dorrell became the 12th player in school history to reach 1,000 career kills and has since moved into the ninth spot. She ranks in 11 of Arkansas’ career statistical categories. “I’m really proud of Jess and how hard she worked in the off-season to prepare for her senior year,” said Poole. “This was a tough year for our team with all the injuries, youth and inexperience; however, Jess was a big bright spot and continued to be a great leader for our program on and off the court.”
Dorrell earns ESPN The Magazine Academic honor Senior Jessica Dorrell earned selection to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District team it was recently announced. Dorrell, becomes the nine Lady Razorback volleyball player to be selected and it is the 11th honor for the program. In the classroom Dorrell was named to the SEC Freshman Academic Honor Roll as well as the SEC Academic Honor Roll for three seasons. She is a multiple-time member of the Arkansas Women’s Athletics Department academic honor roll earning a perfect 4.0 grade point average in the spring of 2007.
Freudenrich selected to SEC All-Freshman Team Sarah Freudenrich expected to redshirt the 2007 season using it as a training year but injury to others forced her into the Lady’Back line up from the first meet of the year. She finished the year with 137 kills in SEC matches, hitting .250 with 23 digs and a team-best 120 total blocks for a 1.52 block per game average. Freudenrich was ranked in the top 20 in the nation for blocking for much of the season and already finds her name sprinkled throughout the Arkansas blocking records. She is the seventh Lady Razorback selected to the all-SEC freshman team since the award’s inception in 2003. “Sarah was a great surprise for us this season and has a very bright future ahead,” said Poole. “She is one of three freshmen that got a lot of playing time this season and definitely made the most of that experience. Sarah works hard and takes her responsibility on the court very seriously. We are very excited about her future as a dominant middle for our program.”
Miller earns SEC Community Service honor Senior Ashley Miller was honored by the SEC with selection to the leagues Community Service team last week. Miller has been involved in several volunteer activities throughout out her career as she participated in Dr. Seuss Read Across American Day, the Houston nutt Classic Golf Tournament and was a representative on the U of A Tobacco Free Coalition. Her biggest involvement however has been her efforts towards breast cancer awareness. Her year long commitment to breast cancer and breast cancer awareness has led to a variety of activities from designing newspaper ads placed in the campus newspaper, to producing a bi-monthly newsletter, presentations, Race for the Cure, to sponsoring a creative writing contest and an art contest called “Every Sister, Every Daughter, Every Mother”.
Miller sets SEC digs recordSenior Ashley Miller set the Southeastern Conference career digs record in a five-game win at Georgia Nov. 11. Miller entered the season with 1556 career digs and has added 539 digs this year (through 11/23/07) bringing her career total to 2095. The previous mark of 2037 was held by Kentucky’s Jenni Casper (2003-06).
Miller owns Arkansas digs recordSenior Ashley Miller holds the Arkansas record for digs with 2095 (through 11-23) and is the only player in school history with more than 2000. 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 2095 and climbing, career digs per game with 4.36 (through 11-23-07) and was the digs per game leader in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. 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)].
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 1484 while Scanlan stands at 1,368.
Arkansas in the SEC stats – SEC-Only matchesThe Lady’Backs’ 6-12 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: 11th for hitting percentage (.177); eighth in opponent hitting percentage (.224); eighth in assists (13.24), ninth in kills (14.35); ninth in service aces (1.13); and 10th in digs (15.96). Arkansas is fourth overall in blocks with a 2.99 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 ninth in hitting percentage (.197); eightth in assists (13.38); ninth in opponent hitting percentage (.220); ninth in kills (14.62); seventh in service aces (1.51) and 10th in digs (15.11). The Lady’Backs are fifth in all-match blocks with a 2.89 block per game average.
Freudenrich among SEC leadersDespite Arkansas’ win-loss woes, freshman Sarah Freudenrich is making a name for herself. The Broken Arrow, Okla., native ranks third in the SEC (in SEC-only matches) for blocks per game with a 1.52 bpg average. Freudenrich has 14 solos and 106 block assists for 120.0 total blocks this year. Freudenrich is third in all matches averaging 1.46 blocks per game with 24 solos and 147 assists for 171.0 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 4.16 kills per game in all matches. Dorrell ranks third in SEC-only contests with 4.04 kpg 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 4.77 dpg with 377 digs in SEC only matches. Miller ranks sixth in all matches as well averaging 4.73 dpg with 539 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.