Hogs Go the Distance Against Top-10 Tigers in Columbia
FAYETTEVILLE – It was a battle in Columbia, Mo. on Wednesday for Arkansas volleyball and top-10 ranked Missouri. The Razorbacks battled back from a two-set deficit but would fall to the Tigers in five (13-25, 22-25, 25-21, 27-25, 6-15).
Despite only matching up against Missouri 17 times since the series began in the ‘90s, Wednesday night’s five setter was the first time in program history that the Hogs marched into Columbia and forced five sets from the Tigers.
Arkansas will return to the Hearnes Center for a rematch, tomorrow night (Oct. 5) at 6:00 p.m. CT.
Links to tomorrow’s match up can be found here: SEC Network Live Scoring
Hog Highlights
- Taylor Head | 17 kills, 13 digs
- Season-high kills
- Fifth-straight double-double
- Season-high three service aces
- Jillian Gillen | 16 kills, 15 digs
- Gracie Ryan | 41 assists, 11 digs
How It Happened
Arkansas did what it could in the first set against Missouri’s Kylie Deberg, but it would take two sets before the Hogs found the spark they needed to change the tides in Columbia. After dropping the first two sets, 25-13 and 25-22 respectively, the Razorbacks found themselves trailing 13-7 mid-way through the third set behind four-straight service aces from Deberg. Arkansas did not yield to Missouri’s momentum and in fact used an 18-8 scoring run to close out the third set and force a fourth, winning the deciding set 25-21.
The fourth set was all Razorbacks early on, as Arkansas jumped out to a 12-5 lead with six consecutive points that included kills from Head, Gillen and senior Liz Pamphile. The Tigers never rolled over and tied the set at 23 points apiece, taking advantage of some Arkansas miscues. The Hogs fought back and with back-to-back kills from Pamphile and Head, tied the match at two-sets each, winning the fourth set in extra points, 27-25.
Missouri’s offense came out strong in the final set and after falling behind, 8-1, the Hogs couldn’t recover and dropped the fifth set to the Tigers, 15-6.
Hear from the Hogs
“It’s the lessons from matches like the one this evening that help us improve,” said head volleyball coach, Jason Watson. “We came up short, against a well-coached Missouri team. I’m proud of the resolve shown to get us into game five.”
“I’m a big fan of our scheduling format this year,” said Watson. “I’m excited to see the changes both teams make heading into tomorrow night’s match.”
“Tonight’s match tested us, and I believe we did a great job with remaining levelheaded being resilient,” said freshman Taylor Head. “Being down two sets didn’t frighten us, we knew what we had to do. It was a tough loss, but we are excited bounce back tomorrow!”
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