Arkansas Volleyball Fact Sheet #7
Arkansas continues SEC play this week
The Lady Razorbacks continue the Southeastern Conference play this week returning home to host Georgia on Friday and Auburn on Sunday. Arkansas notched its first SEC win of the season Sunday with a 3-2 victory at Tennessee. Arkansas enters the week with a 1-5 SEC mark and is 7-9 overall. Georgia is 3-3 in the league and 12-4 overall while Auburn is 1-5 in the SEC and 9-8 overall.
The win at Tennessee was big
The win at Tennessee stopped the longest losing streak in school history at eight. In addition, the victory improved Arkansas to 14-7 lifetime against the Lady Vols.
Sarah Freudenrich plays well
Freshman Sarah Freudenrich helped Arkansas to its first Southeastern Conference win in a five-game thriller at Tennessee Sunday. Freudenrich set a season/career-best with 12 block assists and 13.0 total blocks. Her 13.0 blocks in the win is tied for sixth all-time at Arkansas. She finished the weekend with 19.0 total blocks in two matches. In addition, the 6-5 first-year player had four digs tying her season/career-best with three digs against Tennessee. Freudenrich hit just .208 for the weekend but was better than the team average. For the season, Freudenrich is hitting .303 with 1.41 kills per game, 0.34 digs per game and 1.44 blocks per game.
Eight in a row
Arkansas lost eight contests in a row making it the longest losing streak in school history. It betters last year’s five-match skid that ran from Oct. 1-Oct. 15. Those losses were all conference matches. Arkansas lost five consecutive SEC matches this year.
Non-Conference schedule over – almost
Arkansas’ 2007 non-conference schedule seemed to fly by. The Lady Razorbacks played to a 6-4 non-conference mark. After starting the year 6-1, Arkansas dropped its last three non-SEC matches. The Lady’Backs have one more non-conference match remaining during the regular season. Arkansas hosts Connecticut Nov. 24, prior to the start of the NCAA Tournament.
Setters move up on career lists
Arkansas 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 1,130 while Scanlan stands at 1,012.
An SEC bottleneck
The SEC has four teams, three in the West and one in the East, tied with 1-5 records as the league continues to beat up on each other. The Western Division teams are Auburn, Arkansas and Mississippi State while South Carolina is the East representative. Arkansas has faced, and lost, to Mississippi State, and hosts Auburn this weekend having a chance to make a move. The Lady’Backs face South Carolina Oct. 14 before beginning the second half of the SEC season in which the Lady’Backs will rematch each of those teams.
Arkansas in the SEC stats – SEC-Only matches
The Lady’Backs’ 1-5 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 (.170); eighth in opponent hitting percentage (.242); 10th in assists (12.81), 10th in kills (13.52); 10th in service aces (0.90); and 11th in digs (14.81). On the bright side, Arkansas is third overall in blocks with a 2.90 block per game average.
Arkansas in the SEC stats – All matches
Arkansas’ numbers are a bit better in all matches (conference and non-conference). The Lady’Backs are seventh in hitting percentage (.216); ninth in assists (13.36); 10th in opponent hitting percentage (.223); ninth in kills (14.59); sixth in service aces (1.81) and 11th in digs (13.86). Surprisingly, the Lady’Backs fall to fifth in all-match blocks with a 2.76 block per game average.
Freudenrich tops in the SEC
Despite Arkansas’ win-loss woes, freshman Sarah Freudenrich is making a name for herself. The Broken Arrow, Okla., native ranks first in the SEC (in SEC-only matches) for blocks per game with a 1.62 bpg average. Freudenrich has two solos and 32 block assists for 34.0 total blocks this year. Freudenrich is fourth in all matches averaging 1.44 blocks per game with 12 solos and 73 assists for 85.0 total blocks.
Dorrell ranks in kills per game
Senior Jessica Dorrell finds herself ranked eighth this week in kills per game. The Aledo, Texas, native is averaging 3.71 kills per game in SEC only contests.
Miller ranks in digs per game
Senior Ashley Miller leads Arkansas in digs and ranks sixth in the SEC for digs per game. The Vacaville, Calif., native is averaging 4.52 dpg with 95 digs in SEC only matches. Miller ranks sixth in all matches as well averaging 4.59 dpg with 257 total digs this year.
Scanlan ranks in service aces
Sophomore setter Lindsay Scanlan finds her name among the SEC leaders for service aces per game. Scanlan ranks tied for eighth with 0.44 service aces per game in all matches. Scanlan was helped by a career/season-best nine service aces against Norfolk State in tournament action early this year.
Arkansas’ 2007 season bests
As the season continues, Arkansas has established its season-bests. The season-best for kills is 80 in the five-game win over Pepperdine. Arkansas also recorded 198 total attempts and 72 assists against Pepperdine as well. The season-best for aces is 19 (NSU), digs is 78 (FSU) and blocks is 20. at Tennessee. Here’s a look at the team numbers for the season.
G K KPG E TA % A APG SA SE SAPG RE D DPG BS BA TB BPG BE BHE PTS
ARKANSAS 59 861 14.59 374 2250 .216 788 13.36 107 102 1.81 113 818 13.86 24 278 163.0 2.76 47 34 1131.0
Opponents 59 902 15.29 393 2286 .223 841 14.25 113 141 1.92 107 901 15.27 20 215 127.5 2.16 43 30 1142.5
Arkansas is the SEC’s odd team out
The 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 reminder
The 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.
Poole returns for 14th season
Arkansas head coach Chris Poole enters his 14th season at the helm of the Lady Razorbacks. Poole is the only coach Arkansas has ever known and he has guided the Lady’Backs to a 309-150 (through 9/24/07) record during his tenure. Holly Watts returns has Poole’s associate head coach and the Lady’Backs welcome the addition of Gokhan Yilmaz who joins the team as an assistant coach this fall.
Arkansas picks up TV match
Although the Lady Razorbacks were not selected for an SEC match of the week, Arkansas is still making a television appearance. Sun Sports will pick up the Fayetteville match between the Lady Razorbacks and Florida. More details will follow on the times and talent.
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.
Lady’Backs tabbed third in SEC West
Arkansas was picked to finish third in the Southeastern Conference’s Western Division the league office announced Tuesday, Aug. 14. Arkansas finished the year 16-13 last year and made its fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance in 2006. The Lady’Backs return 10 players from last year’s team and welcome six newcomers for the 2007 season.
Western Points Eastern Points
Alabama 14 Florida 10
LSU 17 Kentucky 22
ARKANSAS 28 Tennessee 25
Ole Miss 36 Georgia 41
Auburn 47 South Carolina 42
Miss State 53
