Razorbacks fall in three at Kentucky

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LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Arkansas volleyball team fell in three to No. 23 Kentucky in Southeastern Conference action Friday. Arkansas (5-13, 2-6 SEC) dropped the three-set match 18-25, 18-25, 17-25, to the Wildcats (17-3, 8-1 SEC). “It was a disappointing loss,” said Arkansas head coach Robert Pulliza. “We’re still not able to put together a complete match. I thought our defense was better tonight but we struggled to get the offense going.” Arkansas hit .133 for the match behind a solid 10-kill performance from senior Christina Lawrence. Freshman Kelli Stipanovich added seven kills and sophomore Hillary McCormick had five for Arkansas. The Razorbacks hurt themselves with unforced errors recording 18 hitting errors, four service errors and five reception errors for easy Wildcat points. “We have to get better at taking care of the ball on our side of the net,” said Pulliza. “We cannot continue to give good teams easy points. Kentucky is a very good team and they did a good job of taking us out of our offense.” The Wildcats were a little off their game as well to start the match. Kentucky hit just .108 in the first frame but out-did the Razorbacks who were negative in the opening set. The momentum stayed with Kentucky in the second set but Arkansas rallied late holding off five set points. “We did some good things at the end of the second set and I was pleased with that effort,” said Pulliza. The Razorbacks were able to carry some of that energy over to start set three but the Wildcats regained the lead around the 10-point mark and never looked back. Arkansas continues to work its way through the first half of the SEC schedule traveling to Tennessee Sunday for a 12:30 p.m. contest. That match airs live in Northwest Arkansas on KXUA, 88.3 FM and on the internet at ArkansasRazorbacks.com.