Arkansas volleyball has two on the road

FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas volleyball team returns to the road this weekend with Southeastern Conference matches at South Carolina and No. 10 Florida.

Arkansas opens weekend play at South Carolina Friday at 6:00 p.m. central taking on a Gamecock team who recently upset nationally-ranked LSU. The Lady’Backs have a rematch with Florida Sunday at 12:00 p.m. and both matches will air live on KXUA, 88.3 FM.

The Lady Razorbacks have had an up and down season notching two big wins over nationally-ranked opponents and dropping other near miss matches throughout the season.

"Consistency," said Arkansas head coach Chris Poole. "We are trying to take care of the ball this week. We have turned our full attention to our side of the net. We have to be more in control of what we do before we can worry about our opponents."

Arkansas must first turn its attention to the Gamecocks who have had a similar season to the Lady’Backs. The teams have met once this year with Arkansas scratching out a three game win in Fayetteville. Lady’Back freshman Heather Royal paced Arkansas with 15 kills and the Lady’Backs hit .413 in the first meeting. SC has gone 2-2 since the first meeting (10/14) with wins over Auburn and LSU and losses to Georgia and Ole Miss. Carolina is hitting .223 as a team paced by Belita Salter hitting .333 with 232 kills. Ivana Kujundzic leads the team with 287 kills and 3.46 kills per

game. Carolina is 5-4 at home but falls to 2-4 in the SEC on their home court.

"Heather has made the most improvement this year," said Poole. "She sat out last season at another school and has really gotten herself back into playing shape. Sarah (Freudenrich) also continues to improve and help us. We are playing some you players and, although they make mistakes, they are learning with each match."

The season is winding down quickly for Arkansas with just seven regular season matches remaining. The weekend is the first of two consecutive road weekends as the Lady’Backs travel to Auburn and Georgia next weekend. Arkansas hosts Tennessee and Kentucky Nov. 16 and 18, respectively, and concludes the regular season Nov. 24, hosting Connecticut.

For more information about Arkansas volleyball please log on to LADYBACKS.COM.