Hogs open SEC schedule on road at Texas A&M on Wednesday

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas turns its attention to SEC play which begins Wednesday at Texas A&M.

First serve of the conference opener is scheduled for 7 p.m. on the SEC Network. Arkansas (6-4) has won nine of its past 10 SEC openers including five in a row.

All-Time Series vs Texas A&M
Wednesday’s match will be the 11th meeting in the series, all since the Aggies joined the SEC prior to 2012.

Arkansas won both matchups last year including a straight-set win in College Station. Three of Arkansas’ four wins in the series have come in College Station.

Courtney Lyle (play-by-play) and Jenny Hazelwood (analyst) will be on the call for Wednesday’s match.

Last Time Out
Arkansas closed out its non-conference schedule with a four-set road loss at Georgia Tech (Sept. 15).

Sophomore Logan Brown tallied a career-high 20 kills while Hailey Dirrigl (16 kills, 11 digs) and Rachel Rippee (47 assists, 10 digs) each had double-doubles in the setback.

In the weekend opener against NC State (Sept. 14), the Razorbacks had 11 service aces including four from freshman Lauren Evans.

Logan’s Last Five
Over her last four outings, sophomore Logan Brown has put down 68 kills which is good for 3.78 kills per set coupled with a .297 hitting percentage.

Her career-high 20 kills against Georgia Tech (Sept. 15) replaced her previous best of 15 which she posted in the previous two matches.

Milestone Watch
Senior libero Okiana Valle enters the week needing 26 digs to reach 1,500 for her career.

She has four matches this season with at least 20 digs including a season-high 24 digs in the opener against Kansas (Aug. 24).

Additionally, Rachel Rippee is 34 assists shy of 2,732 career assists which would move her into the program’s all-time top five.

Career Assists at Arkansas
1. 5,886 – Tina Rico (1994-97)
2. 3,661 – Raymariely Santos (2010-13)
3. 3,182 – Ning Zhao (1998-99)
4. 2,825 – Lindsay Scanlan (2006-09)
5. 2,732 – Roberta Tarnauskaite (2002-03)
6. 2,698 – Rachel Rippee (2016-pres.)

Where They Rank
Through four weeks of the 2018 campaign, junior Rachel Rippee is second in the SEC with 10.89 assists per set and senior libero Okiana Valle is third with 4.41 digs per set.

In the middle, sophomore Elizabeth Pamphile ranks fifth in the conference with 1.05 blocks per set.

Additional top-10 SEC performers are sophomore Hailey Dirrigl who is seventh with 3.53 kills per set and freshman Lauren Evans who is eighth with 0.38 aces per set.