Dorrell's career night lifts Lady'Backs

Jump to Stephen F. Austin box score FAYETTEVILLE – University of Arkansas junior Jessica Dorrell posted a career-best 18 kills leading the Lady Razorbacks to a five-game win over Stephen F. Austin at the Arkansas Invitational in Barnhill Arena Friday. Dorrell hit .304 and tallied a career-best 15 digs leading Arkansas to the 30-24, 26030, 27-30, 30-20, 15-8 win as the Lady’Backs improve to 2-0 in the tournament. “I thought Jess had another good match,” said Arkansas head coach Chris Poole. “She’s in a little different position this year and going through a bit of a transition but she’s doing a nice job making the adjustments.” Arkansas had four players in double-digit kills in the win. In addition to Dorrell’s 18, senior Denitza Koleva had 15 kills while senior Amy Allison and junior Kele Brewer each had 11. Koleva had a career-best 20 digs. Allison’s 11 kills saw the Jenks, Okla., native hit a match-best .308 and she had eight blocks for Arkansas. The drama came down to the last game as it always does in five setters. After flat-line performances in games two and three, the Lady’Backs picked up the momentum late in the fourth and carried into the final frame. Arkansas was out of the gate quickly racing to a 4-0 lead and forcing their opponent to burn a timeout early. The break did little to slow Arkansas who took an 8-3 lead as the teams changed benches at the mid-way point. As the Lady’Backs played better, the “seventh player” – the rowdy crowd of 624 including the Hog Wild Band and cheerleaders, raised the roof on Barnhill making for an intimidating atmosphere down the stretch. Arkansas never looked back extending its lead to 11-5 before winning 15-8. The Lady’Backs hit .240 in the last game with nine kills holding SFA to a .043 final frame hitting percentage. Arkansas’ efficient start to the first frame permitted Poole to clear the bench late in the frame with freshman Ivan Suput seeing her first collegiate action. Redshirt sophomore Christina Lawrence keyed the Lady’Backs with five kills and hit .714 with no hitting errors while Arkansas managed a .325 mark as a team. Arkansas had 10 unforced errors but bettered SFA who tallied 15 in the opening stanza. The momentum cooled a bit in the second game, similar to what Arkansas saw in a four-game win Thursday over Sacramento State. “You almost hate to win by a big margin,” said Poole in a statement nearly echoing last night. “Instead of that getting our blood flowing and wanting more, we let up and think we can win easy.” Arkansas struggled to get going in the second stanza and Poole had burned his final timeout with the Lady’Backs trailing 19-15. Unforced Arkansas errors were the difference along with better digging and ball control from SFA. “You have to give SFA a lot of credit,” said Poole. “They made some adjustments and played with a lot of energy. They just never quit but I thought we did a good job late in the game of making some changes ourselves but it just wasn’t enough.” The Lady’Backs improved their blocking effort in game two especially late in the game finishing with five and junior Jessica Dorrell was solid on offense with a game-best six kills. Seven hitting errors, five service errors and three blocking errors, however, hurt Arkansas’ chances for the win. The unforced errors and momentum shift continued into game three as the Lady’Backs could get close but never overtake the Lady Jacks. Arkansas struggled offensively hitting .062 with 14 kills and 11 hitting errors while SFA out-blocked the LadyBakcs 3.5-2 in the frame. Dorrell and Amy Allison had five kills each with Allison hitting .364. The duo were the only Lady’Backs with positive hitting numbers in the third game. The “game-one” Lady’Backs returned to the court in the fourth game putting on a hitting clinic behind senior Denitza Koleva who tallied five kills cruising to the 10-point win to force a fifth game. Sacramento State notched a pair of wins in the earlier matches of the day. The Hornets defeated Stephen F. Austin in three games in the noon match and notched a three-set victory over Southeast Missouri State in the 5:00 p.m. match. The Arkansas Invitational concludes Saturday with a pair of matches. The day opens at 11:00 a.m., when Arkansas takes on Southeast Missouri State and play concludes at 4:00 p.m., as SEMO and Stephen F. Austin square off. For more information about Arkansas volleyball please call the Lady Razorback Ticket Office at 57-LBACK or log on to LADYBACKS.COM.