Volleyball travels to Virginia Tech
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas’ young volleyball team faces another tough challenge at the Virginia Tech Invitational in Blacksburg, Va., this weekend.
Arkansas (2-2) takes part in tournament action facing the host Hokies (3-0) as well as Norfolk State (1-2) and ECU (1-2).
The Razorbacks are on a two-match winning streak defeating Grambling State last weekend at the TCU Invitational and downing Texas-Arlington in Arkansas’ home opener Tuesday. Head coach Robert Pulliza has seen some good things in the early season but recognizes that the Razorbacks still need to fine tune a few things.
"We just need to keep working on our organization on the court," he said. "We want to improve our discipline, organization and serve-receive patterns and always get better on defense. That’s something we’re stressing all season long. Defense is something that is always going to be a key as we prepare for our opponents."
Arkansas begins the season with just five returners from Pulliza’s first season at Arkansas and the team welcomed the addition of seven talented newcomers.
Three freshmen have emerged early as the statistical leaders on offense. Amanda Anderson, who earned all-tournament team honors last weekend, leads the team with a .419 hitting percentage as well as 14 blocks and a 1.00 block-per-set average.
Janeliss Torres-Lopez has 13 blocks and a 1.00 bps average while Jasmine Norton leads the team with 43 kills and a 3.31 kills-per-set average.
Senior Lindsay Scanlan has stepped into the full-time role as the team’s setter and sophomore Phoebe Bautista has been on the court as the team’s libero this year and leads Arkansas with 63 digs this season.
Arkansas opens tournament play with Norfolk State Friday at 3 p.m. The face ECU Saturday at 9 a.m. followed by the 6 p.m. match with Virginia Tech.
Log on to ArkansasRazorbacks.com for the live statistics as well as game recaps and box scores.
Arkansas is on the road Tuesday, Sept. 8, traveling to Tulsa but returns to Fayetteville Sept. 11-12 hosting the Arkansas Invitational.
For more information and match times log on to ArkansasRazorbacks.com.
