Lady'Back volleyball falls to Northern Iowa

MANHATTAN, KAN. – University of Arkansas senior Jessica Dorrell posted a match-best 15 kills but couldn’t lift the Lady Razorbacks to a win over Northern Iowa at Varney’s Kansas State Invitational in Manhattan, Kan., Saturday. The Lady Razorbacks (6-4) dropped the match 24-30, 22-30, 34-36 to the Panthers who improve to 4-5. “It’s been a lot of years since we went 0-3 at a tournament,” said head coach Chris Poole. ”It was just a bad weekend for us. We made a lot of mistakes and a lot of mental errors.” Arkansas hit just .152 with 46 kills and 25 errors. Northern Iowa had a hitting percentage of .250 with 59 kills and 21 errors. Dorrell led all players with 15 kills and added two block assists. Sophomore Kristen Seaton and freshman Heather Royal tallied eight kills apiece while freshman Sarah Freudenrich hit .500 with two block solos and two block assists. Senior Ashley Miller led the defensive stats with a season-best 25 digs. Royal added 11 digs. In the first game, an early 6-1 run by the Panthers forced Poole to burn a timeout at 6-11. The Lady’Backs brought the score within two late in the game, but the UNI offense proved too strong hitting .333 with 20 kills. Arkansas did not have a block in the first frame. The Lady’Backs were not deterred by their lack-luster performance in game one and came out with a steady lead in the second frame. Arkansas took a timeout at 14-14 after a 4-0 Panther run. UNI held the slight advantage and was up by no more than two until it went on a 7-1 run to end the game. Arkansas got on the board with two blocks, but had 10 kills flattened by 10 hitting errors. As the teams took the court in the third frame it was anyone’s win and the score was tied 20 times and there were six lead changes. Arkansas was up by as many as five, but Northern Iowa would not surrender, fighting back to a 36-34 win. “We have young players making mistakes and that is going to happen, but we’ve got too many mistakes happening during key points in the game and its costing us games and matches,” “That’s something we’re going to have to go back and work on and try to get better at. Hopefully we’ll learn from this weekend and get ready for conference.” Arkansas opens Southeastern Conference play Friday hosting Ole Miss in Barnhill Arena at 7 p.m. For more information about Arkansas volleyball or for tickets please call the Lady Razorback Ticket Office at 57-LBACK or log on to LADYBACKS.COM.