Hitting woes hurt Lady'Backs in loss

Jump to BYU box score LAWRENCE, Kansas – The University of Arkansas struggled offensively falling in three to No. 16 BYU at the Kansas Invitational Volleyball Tournament in Lawarence, Kan., Friday. The 26-30, 17-30, 25-30 loss is the first of the year for the Lady Razorbacks who fall to 6-1 on the year while BYU improves to 7-1 overall. Arkansas continues tournament play facing host Kansas in a 1:00 p.m., match Saturday. “It was a very disappointing match,” said Arkansas head coach Chris Poole. “Kele Brewer, who’s hurt, hit 32 percentage and played solid but some other players didn’t step up. We had a lot of mistakes by players who shouldn’t be making those right now. It’s time for players to step up in this kind of match.” Arkansas hit just .160 for the match with 43 kills and 22 hitting errors. Senior Denitza Koleva paced the team with 11 kills and seven digs. Junior Jessica Dorrell added eight kills as did sophomore Christina Lawrence while Brewer tallied seven kills and had no hitting errors in the match. Koleva’s streak of six consecutive double-doubles came to an end as the Sofia, Bulgaria, native managed seven digs while junior libero Ashley Miller extended her streak to seven matches with double-digit digs. The Vacaville, Calif., native tallied a team-best 17 in the loss. BYU’s Chelsea Goodman paced all hitters with 17 kills, 18 digs and a .316 hitting percentage. The Cougars hit .331 for the match with 55 kills and 61 digs. The Lady’Backs finished the match with a quite seven blocks and were out-blocked 8-7 in the loss. “We just didn’t step up and take advantage of our opponents’ mistakes. Hopefully, we can come back tomorrow and play much better.” Arkansas and the Cougars were close for much of the first frame. First, Arkansas would eek out a one or two point lead but BYU would come back, take a lead and stretch it to a couple of points before the Lady’Backs battled back. The Lady’Backs had a 24-23 lead and BYU burned a timeout. The scored and re-took the lead, 25-24, as Poole called Arkansas’ final timeout of the game. But the Cougars continued to roll finishing with a 4-2 run to win the first game. The Lady’Backs hit a respectable .227 with 18 kills, 16 digs and two blocks but the Cougars hit .366 with 18 kills, 17 digs and three blocks. Koleva and Lawrence paced Arkansas with four kills each in game one. The second game saw the Lady’Backs come out flat and BYU was all over Arkansas early. The Cougars opened a 10-6 lead that expanded to nine points as they cruised to the win. BYU’s Erica Lott had a good first game expanding on that in the second frame. Lott had five kills leading BYU to a .394 hitting percentage. Lott finished with 13 kills and hit .367 for BYU. Although BYU was efficient, Arkansas couldn’t get anything going in game two. The Lady’Backs hit just .132 with 12 kills and had only two blocks. Arkansas also managed only nine digs while committing 13 unforced errors in the game. Arkansas’ woes continued in the third game as the Lady’Backs trailed from the first serve. The Lady’Backs were again down eight at the mid-way point of the final game but managed a small spark at the end of the frame. Down eight, 18-26, Arkansas went on a 7-4 run as Koleva heated up but BYU was able to hang on for the win.