Koleva Clark earn all-SEC honors Tuesday

FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas senior Denitza Koleva and freshman Destiny Clark were named to the all-Southeastern Conference teams the league announced today. Koleva earned all-SEC second team honors while Clark was selected to the all-SEC freshman team. Koleva was Arkansas’ go-to player from the first serve of the first match in 2006. She began the season with six consecutive double-doubles for kills and digs and she finished the year with 20 in Arkansas’ 28 matches. Koleva collected a career-best 29 kills in a win over Kentucky this year and tallied a career-best 22 digs in a match at Auburn. Koleva hit .251 with a team-leading 4.27 kills per game in all matches. She hit .247 against NCAA regional opponents and .257 against nationally-ranked opponent. In addition to her season-long accomplishments, Koleva ranks second for career kills with 1579, second in total attempts with 4430, fifth in service aces (128), sixth in digs (1045) and 15th in total blocks with 257. "I’m really proud of the way Denny stepped up this season," said Poole. "With the injuries to Kristin (Seaton) and Kele (Brewer), we played the season with Denny as our only healthy left side. This was a tremendous amount of pressure on her. A team designs their offense to send out of system balls to their left side attackers. With the injuries, Denny was getting most of the sets when we were out of system. Denny worked hard to gain strength the last two years and no doubt that prepared her physically to handle the load that was required of her this season. " Clark may have had one of the most challenging roles to fill in 2006 helping maintain Arkansas’ reputation for a big-blocking team. Clark lived up to expectations and went even further than expected setting a school record with 18 block assists against Mississippi in October. Clark finished the regular season with 128.0 total blocks – just one shy of senior Amy Allison helping Arkansas lead the conference in that category. In addition, she hit .275 in all matches in her first season of collegiate ball. "Destiny was a diamond in the rough when we were recruiting her," said Poole. "Her talent and athleticism have helped her become a contributor from the first match. Destiny is a player who gets better with each practice and each match and it’s going to be fun watching her mature on the court. I’m expecting good things from Destiny for three more years." The Lady Razorbacks host NCAA Tournament first and second round matches this week welcoming Missouri State, Oklahoma and Oral Roberts. Arkansas takes on the Bears at 5:00 p.m. Friday followed by the OU/ORU match at 7:00 p.m. The winners face each other Saturday at 7:00 p.m. For more information about the upcoming NCAA Tournament matches and for tickets please log on to LADYBACKS.COM or call the Lady Razorback Ticket Office at 57-LBACK.