Arkansas wins tournament Dorrell MVP - again

Jump to Temple box || Jump to Norfolk State box FAYETTEVILLE – Senior Jessica Dorrell made it two in a row earning tournament MVP honors leading the University of Arkansas volleyball team to the title at the Jefferson Cup Invitational in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday. Dorrell paced Arkansas (6-1) to a pair of wins Saturday downing Temple, 28-30, 27-30, 30-20, 30-28, 15-9, and blowing out Norfolk State in one of the biggest wins in program history, 30-19, 30-9, 30-10. Dorrell was joined by junior Christina Lawrence and sophomore Catherine Fowler who also earned all-tournament team honors. “We were certainly flat in the first two games today,” said Arkansas head coach Chris Poole. “But we really showed a lot of character to come back and win that match. We played much better in the last three games and we really had a balanced offensive attack for the entire tournament.” Dorrell finished the weekend with 42 kills and 3.52 kills per game. She hit .318 in the three matches with 11 digs and nine total blocks. Lawrence added 24 kills and 3.00 kpg with a 3.83 hitting percentage and seven blocks in the three wins. Fowler tallied 22 kills. 2.00 kpg and 12 blocks for Arkansas. Freshman Sarah Freudenrich paced Arkansas with 13.0 total blocks for the weekend. Arkansas out-hit its three opponents .287 to .170 and out-blocked its opponents 28.0-15.0. The Lady’Backs were able to work Russellville, Ark., senior Kelli Cole into the lineup in the final match as the team’s starting libero. Cole finished with four digs. Senior Ashley Miller, the regular starting libero, had 31 digs in the first two matches of the tournament. She is just 21 digs shy of the school record. The first match of the day saw Dorrell led all hitters with 19 kills. Freshman Heather Royal added 17 kills while Lawrence added 15 kills and had six blocks. Sophomore Kristin Seaton was the only other Lady Razorback in double figures with 11 kills against Temple. Arkansas set a school record with 19 service aces in the win over Norfolk State bettering the previous mark of 15. Sophomore setter Lindsay Scanlan tallied eight aces, just one ace shy of the record of nine held by Anna Velikanova set against Oklahoma in 2000. Arkansas also hit well in the nightcap, recording a .395 hitting percentage in the three-set win. The Lady Razorbacks return to the court Friday-Saturday, Sept. 7-8, at the Varney’s KSU Invitational in Manhattan, Kan., where they face the host K-State Wildcats along with Fresno State and Northern Iowa. For more information about the Lady Razorback volleyball team, please log on to LADYBACKS.COM.