Hogs Sweep Tigers at Home
The Razorbacks returned to Barnhill Arena on Wednesday for a midweek match-up against the Missouri Tigers and came away with a sweep.
The Hogs won sets one and two 25-20 and closed out the third 25-18 for the team’s first victory against Missouri since 2012. Arkansas is now 15-6 overall in the season and 6-4 in the SEC. Their 15 wins are the most since the 2017-18 season.
Junior Maggie Cartwright led the team with 11 kills on 20 swings for a .500 hitting percentage. Cartwright also had four service aces, which ties a career high. Junior Jill Gillen came in second with 10 kills, and Gracie Ryan had 32 assists and a team-high eight digs.
Mizzou made a push early in the first set, but the Hogs answered back and stayed close and took a 9-7 lead. The teams continued to go back-and-forth from there, and the Tigers were the first to 15 and led by one at the media timeout. A 3-1 Hog run which featured two kills from Gillen gave Arkansas a 19-17 lead, which sent Missouri to a timeout. Arkansas added another three points after that, and the Tigers huddled again. Kills from Cartwright and Taylor Head closed the set 25-20 in favor of the home team.
Arkansas opened the second set with a 4-0 run for an early advantage. The Tigers threatened and came within one, but the Razorbacks led 15-14 at the media timeout. Mizzou tied it up after that, but the Hogs answered with three points to go up 19-16. Gillen and Head added kills to put the Hogs at 21, and a kill from Cartwright and block from her and senior Ellease Crumpton pushed it to set point. A kill from Crumpton finished the second set just as the first ended, 25-20, for a 2-0 match lead.
The third set was extremely tight between the two, and saw nine ties early on. The Hogs then began to pull away with a 4-1 run just before the media timeout and took a 15-12 lead. An ace from Cartwright and a kill from Head extended the advantage before another timeout. Cartwright added another two aces to push the Hogs to a 20-12 lead, and three straight Arkansas points took the third to set and match point for the Razorbacks. The Tigers tacked on three to narrow the gap, but a kill from Gillen shut the effort down for a 25-18 victory and match sweep.
Up Next
Arkansas has the weekend off before returning to action on Nov. 6-7 against Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Saturday’s match is set for noon and will be streamed on SEC Network+, and Sunday’s finale will begin at 3 p.m. live on SEC Network.
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