School records can't lift Lady'Backs

Jump to Ole Miss box score FAYETTEVILLE – Freshman Destiny Clark and junior Ashley Miller both set school records but it wasn’t enough to lift the University of Arkansas volleyball team to a win over Mississippi Sunday. Arkansas (10-4, 3-3 SEC) dropped the five-game heart-breaker to Mississippi (10-5, 2-4 SEC) 28-30, 26-30, 30-27, 30-21, 15-17 despite the solid play from Clark and Miller. Clark, a Manhattan, Kan., native, collected a record 18 total blocks eclipsing the previous mark of 15 held by former Lady’Back Libby Windell. Miller erased her own digs record with 36 in the loss. Arkansas tied the record for team blocks with 24 but couldn’t over come a solid match from Mississippi. The Lady Rebel win was the first in 17 matches and only the second ever in the program’s history. ‘It was a disappointing match on a lot of fronts,” said Arkansas head coach Chris Poole. “We never got the offense started. I’m really disappointed that our offense isn’t better by now.” Arkansas hit just .116 for the match but managed just .080, .075 and .043 in the first three frames. Senior Denitza Koleva lead Arkansas with 19 kills and 17 digs and senior Amy Allison added 11 kills and hit .321. The duo were the only Lady’Backs with double-digit kills. Sophomore Christina Lawrence also had a good match with a career-best 13 blocks and eight kills. The match came down to a critical fifth game and Arkansas started out well. The Lady’Backs headed into the frame with all the momentum after winning games three and four. Mississippi scored the first two points but Arkansas rallied tying the score with a kill from Allison. Then the Lady’Backs went on a run opening an 8-4 lead when the teams changed benches at the half-way point. Arkansas extended the lead to 11-5 over the Lady Rebels and the match seemed to be firmly in hand. “Yeah, I thought we had the match won at that point,” said Poole. “But we gave them life. There’s just no excuse. We made mistake after mistake and gave it to them. Ole Miss is a much-improved team and they really played hard. They deserved this win.” Mississippi began chipping away at the Arkansas lead eventually outscoring the Lady’Backs 10-5 for the win. Poole burned his final timeout with Arkansas up 13-10. Mississippi got an ace and a kill closing within one. The Lady Rebels tied the game at 14 on an Arkansas hitting error and took advantage of a Lady’Back net call to take the lead. Arkansas had a pair of match points at 14-12 and again at 14-13 but couldn’t close the door. The Lady Razorbacks return to SEC action with a home mid-week match against No. 12 LSU Wednesday at 7:00 p.m., in Barnhill Arena. For more information or tickets please call the Lady Razorback Ticket Office at 57-LBACK or log on to LADYBACKS.COM.