Hogs Lose to Horns in Four on Friday
Arkansas volleyball gave No. 9 Texas gave all it could early in the match on Friday night, but the Hogs ultimately ran out of steam and fell to the Longhorns 3-1 (25-22, 27-29, 20-25, 19-25).
Freshman setter Maggie McCarroll got her first career start and registered 50 assists and 11 digs for a double-double. It was the most assists for a freshman setter since Rachel Rippee in 2016. The Austin native also registered two aces, two blocks and a kill.
Offensively, Parker Duncan led the effort on the night with 19 kills and hit .242 with nine digs. She was one of three Razorbacks in double figures: Laci Bohannan had 13 kills with a .344 hitting clip and Layla Smith registered 12 kills with no errors for a .429 percentage, both season highs.
Arkansas was great defensively on the night with McCarroll and two others notching 10+ digs, with Madi Benne and Gaby Cornier getting 18 apiece. The Hogs outblocked the Longhorns 12-3 on the night, with Smith posting seven and Romani Thurman with six.
Despite the loss, it was the Razorbacks’ most efficient outing in SEC play with a .281 hitting percentage, also their highest since Sept. 18.
A total of 2,727 fans were in attendance at Barnhill Arena, the highest since last season last September and the 10th-highest in program history.
Arkansas is now 8-7 on the season and 0-4 in conference play.
Set 1
The two teams traded blows early in the opening set until the Razorbacks used two straight points to take a narrow 10-8 lead. They continued to limit Texas’ chances while tacking on a 3-0 run started by a Duncan kill that made it 14-10 Hogs. Any time the Horns started to gain momentum, Arkansas kept it short and was the first to 20 points off a Texas error. After a Longhorns huddle, they delivered a 4-2 run that cut their deficit to two, but it was too late and the Razorbacks carried the energy to a 25-22 set victory, punctuated with a kill from Smith.
Set 2
The Hogs went up 8-5 in the second set with three straight points. The Longhorns answered with a pair, but Arkansas pieced together a 3-0 run capped off by an ace from Benne to extend the lead to 11-7. Texas kept chipping away, but a service error and a kill from Duncan had the Hogs ahead 15-11 at the technical timeout. The Longhorns took back the tempo after that and used a 7-3 run to tie the score at 18-all, which prompted Arkansas to call time. The Razorbacks continued to maintain a two-point lead, and a kill from Thurman put the Hogs two points away at 22-20. A Texas timeout gave the visiting team the energy it needed, and it was a battle from there. The two teams exchanged six set points, but ultimately back-to-back Texas kills outlasted Arkansas for a 29-27 set two victory, tying the match at 1-1.
Set 3
Yet again, the early goings of the set were a battle and neither team gave the other much room to breathe. The Razorbacks finally took a lead off a kill and a solo block from Smith at 11-9, and they kept holding on to it narrowly by one with a setter dump from McCarroll heading into the technical timeout. From there, the Longhorns locked in with a blistering 7-1 run for a 21-16 advantage, and while the Hogs did cut the deficit to two not long after, Texas maintained composure and came back with three unanswered points for a 25-20 win and 2-1 lead in the match.
Set 4
The Horns had a strong start in the fourth with an 8-2 lead, and they stifled the Hogs to just one or two points at a time after that. It was a quick 15-7 Texas lead at the technical break, at which point Arkansas tallied four straight kills, three from Bohannan and one from Thurman, to cut into the Longhorns lead some. After that, the Razorbacks couldn’t stay hot for long enough and one last Texas kill made it 25-19, securing the victory for the Longhorns.
Up Next
Arkansas continues its four-match homestand on Sunday, Oct. 11 against No. 12 and reigning national champion Texas A&M. First serve at Barnhill Arena is set for 12 p.m. and the match will be broadcast live on SEC Network with John Roethlisberger (PxP) and Kele Eveland (analyst) on the call.
More Information
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