First loss comes at hands of No. 6 Wisconsin

ESPN Arkansas News Services
-
0

MANHATTAN, Kan. — Arkansas dropped its first match of the season Friday evening, losing a straight-set decision to No. 6 Wisconsin on day two of the K-State Invitational.

Redshirt senior Pilar Victoria posted a match-high 21 kills with a .368 attack efficiency. Sophomore setter Rachel Rippee dished out 33 assists to go along with five digs and a team-high four total blocks.

Saturday’s weekend finale against Syracuse is scheduled for 11 a.m. (CT), and will be just the second meeting in the series between the two programs. Arkansas and Syracuse last met during the 1999 season. The Razorbacks’ next home match is Sept. 5 when they host Oral Roberts at Barnhill Arena.

FINAL
#6 Wisconsin 3, Arkansas 0 (25-18, 25-21, 25-22) | Box Score
Attendance: 322 | Time: 1:24
Ahearn Field House (Manhattan, Kan.)

Leaders vs #6 Wisconsin

• Kills: Pilar Victoria – 21
• Digs: Okiana Valle – 6
• Blocks: Rachel Rippee – 4.0 (0-4)

The teams exchanged four-point runs to open the match before Wisconsin took control of the scoreboard, building a 13-9 lead.

The Razorbacks responded and pulled to within two points after a kill by Reagan Robinson.

However, the Badgers won six of the next seven points to go ahead 21-14 and force an Arkansas timeout. The nation’s sixth-ranked team went on to take the opening set, 25-18.

Like they did in Friday’s win over Kansas State, the Razorbacks jumped out to a 6-3 lead in the second set after freshman Elizabeth Pamphile found the floor with her third kill of the match.

Wisconsin began to chip away and used a 6-0 run to take an 18-13 lead.

Arkansas (4-1) responded with a run of its own, winning four of the next five points which included three kills by Victoria. With its lead down to one, Wisconsin rattled off the next three points to create some cushion on the scoreboard and come away with a 25-21 set win.

The third set saw just two lead changes but featured eight ties, four of which came in the late stages of the frame.

With the score tied at 5-all, the Razorbacks won six of the next eight points to take an 11-7 lead on a Victoria kill.

The Caguas, Puerto Rico, native had nine kills on 13 swings and no errors in the third set. Arkansas’ lead reached five at 16-11 on a kill by Logan Brown. Another swing in points—this time by Wisconsin—evened the score at 18-all.

With the score tied at 20-20, Victoria and freshman Hailey Dirrigl put down back-to-back kills to go ahead 22-20.

However, the Badgers reels off the final five points of the set with the help of three blocks. With the win, Wisconsin improved to 4-0 overall and 2-0 during the K-State Invitational.

Razorbacks shut out Dukes for second straight win

ESPN Arkansas News Services
-
0

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas only led James Madison by one goal through the majority of the match Friday night, until senior Katie Kienstra found the back of the net in the 74th minute to help the Razorbacks put away the Dukes, 2-0, at Razorback Field.

Kienstra had yet to find the scoresheet this season before tonight’s game, but made her 25 minutes of play count when she delivered home a strike from eight yards. Freshman Brooke Pirkle was credited with the assist after corralling a loose ball near the end line and sending it back to the middle of the box when Kienstra delivered it home.

Colby Hale Quotables
“I think we’re progressing nicely,” Arkansas coach Colby Hale. “Each game we get a little bit better and I thought that was our best game. There’s still a lot to work on. I thought some of the kids that came off the bench were the best they’ve been in a while and I thought that was the difference. We challenged some of the players coming off the bench to make an impact, until now, that was a challenge. They stepped up and got us the big second half goal.”

Arkansas seemed to have played its most complete game of the season as it put 14 shots up with six being on target. Freshman Taylor Malham led all Razorbacks with four shots, one being Arkansas’ first goal in the 27th minute, her third of the season.

Freshman goalkeeper Rachel Harris made her fourth start of the year and picked up her first shutout of her collegiate career, making four saves through 90 minutes. She withstood 11 shots from the Dukes. It’s Harris’ third-straight start in the net as the Arkansas keeper.

Arkansas 1, James Madison 0 – 27th minute
Arkansas got on top of James Madison early on as Malham netted her third score of the year. In what was a beautifully constructed run by Stefani Doyle down the right side, the sophomore sent a cross into the middle of the box, right in front of the keeper. Kayla McKeon was able to tap it toward the left post when Malham bodied it into the net.

Malham now has three goals this year, trailing fellow freshman Parker Goins by one for the team lead. It’s also Malham’s third goal in the last four matches, giving her six points for the season.

Arkansas 2, James Madison 0 – 74th minute
The Razorbacks and Dukes stayed even on possession for the remainder of the first half and for much of the second half. In the first 20 minutes of the second period, JMU outshot Arkansas 5-2 and looked to be close to finding that equalizer. Harris came up big during that stretch, making three of her four saves on the night.

Kienstra broke Arkansas through with the insurance goal in the 74th minute, her first of the season and second of her career to put her team up 2-0.

Up Next
Arkansas hopes to extend its winning streak to three games when it closes out the home stand with Mississippi Valley State on Sunday at Razorback Field. First kick is slated for 1 p.m. and will be televised on SEC Network+.

Only one at ESPN puts Hogs in bowl … barely

Andy Hodges
-
0
Only

Just one game into the season and folks are already putting the bowl projections out there and ESPN isn’t giving Arkansas much respect.

In the first week of projections for the postseason bowl games, only one of the two picking has the Razorbacks in a bowl game and barely at that.

Kyle Bonagura and David M. Hale made their projections Friday and Hale put the Hogs in the Birmingham Bowl against Memphis.

The Hogs have played two bowl games in Birmingham and one that will forever live in the minds of many in the media as the worst trip in school history.

Going into the final week of the season in 1980, Lou Holtz had guaranteed the bowl people in Birmingham the Hogs would beat Texas Tech to finish 6-5 on the season if they would take them.

Arkansas beat the Red Raiders, the Hall of Fame matched them against Tulane and everybody assembled in Birmingham on Christmas Day and the day after. Nobody was messing up the holidays for THAT matchup.

It was freezing cold, including the game when for some reason unknown to anyone there was no heat in the Legion Field pressbox for the game.

The Hogs won the game, 34-15, and some of the fastest stories in Razorback history were filed afterwards so everybody could get out of there and to some heat.

The only other time the Hogs played a bowl game in Birmingham was 1948, pulling out a 21-19 squeaker over William & Mary.

It is early and it will be surprising if the Hogs don’t creep up a little bit in those weekly projections, but it is interesting to see where they’re starting.

Talking about Arkansas’ 49-7 opening night win

ESPN Arkansas News Services
-
0

Tyler Wilson talks about sluggish first half in opener

ESPN Arkansas News Services
-
0

3 in The Lane with Nick Mason: Friday edition

ESPN Arkansas News Services
-
0

Bielema talks about Hogs’ opener win over Florida A&M

ESPN Arkansas News Services
-
0

Hogs put away Rattlers after slow-developing first half

Andy Hodges
-
0

ESPN VIDEO

If you were a little nervous at halftime, join the crowd.

Oh, nobody expected Arkansas to lose to Florida A&M but they did expect things to be a little more separated than the 21-0 score.

Not that it mattered as the Razorbacks put 28 on the board in the second half for a 49-7 win over the Rattlers before a small, intimate gathering announced at 36,055.

That attendance total obviously included a few thousand fans disguised as empty seats.

Bielema was just glad to come out with a win.

“We had some speed bumps in that first half,” he said later, “which was good to overcome, get those out of our way.”

At least the fans are hoping they are out of the way.

The Hogs’ offense sputtered, with three punts and an interception before the first score, a 5-yard run up the middle by Devwah Whaley with 1:15 left in the first quarter that finally produced a 7-0 lead.

Quarterback Austin Allen struggled, mainly with a pass rush that got to him several times and even though Florida A&M had just one sack, many times they were arriving as he delivered the pass.

“He was good, but he’s got some things he needs work through,” Bielema said.

It was attributed to new receivers.

“New wide receivers, new tight ends, a couple new offensive linemen,” Bielema said.

Youth at the wide receiver was cited.

“Those guys need to understand that’s not just a dropped pass, that’s a dropped possession,” he said.

Which goes back to one of our big questions: How is the football IQ of the young wide receivers?

“One of the things that we’re constantly on our guys about is football IQ,” he said. “We have to raise our awareness on third downs, especially offensively.”

Early that was obvious.

It took until midway through the second quarter for the offense to click as Allen found Deon Stewart wide open in the end zone for a 16-yard score and a 14-0 lead with 7:54 before halftime.

“We were a bit rusty early,” Allen said later.

David Williams added a late score with 1:21 left in the half on a 4-yard run, the first of two scores for the graduate transfer. That made it 21-0.

Nobody knows what defensive coordinator said at halftime, but the defense came out charged up in the second half.

On a third-and-20 on the first series of the third quarter, Gabe Richardson blasted the Rattlers’ Hans Supre, Henre Tolliver picked it up and ran in from 18 yards out.

That made it 28-0 and things started clicking.

Hayden added another touchdown on the Hogs’ next possession to make it 35-0, then Williams added his second score on the first play of the final period for a 42-0 lead.

From there it was a matter of playing it out. Cole Kelley got a late 7-yard scoring pass to Cheyenne O’Grady that made it 49-0.

It ended up a big Razorback victory.

But you wonder if some questions were answered.

By seeing the number of times Allen finished passes on his back, that wasn’t a good sign.

No matter what Bielema said, Florida A&M is not even in the same league as a non-Power 5 team.

To be honest, it wasn’t an impressive 49-7 win.

 

 

Hogs’ quarterback Austin Allen after win over Rattlers

ESPN Arkansas News Services
-
0

Defensive back Henre Tolliver on key fumble recovery

ESPN Arkansas News Services
-
0

RB David Williams on pair of TDs in first Razorback game

ESPN Arkansas News Services
-
0
1...1,7531,7541,755...1,803Page 1,754 of 1,803