FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas volleyball team continues it season and begins the second half of SEC play Friday evening with a road match at Missouri. First serve of the conference matchup is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. (CT) at the Hearnes Center in Columbia, Mo. The Razorbacks enter the weekend with an 11-11 overall record and a 5-4 mark in SEC play.
Friday’s match will be streamed live on SEC Network+ which is available through the WatchESPN app. Ben Arnet and Alexis Mitchell will handle the commentary duties for the stream. For Arkansas-Missouri live stats, log on to mutigers.com.
Arkansas and Missouri (13-11, 4-5 SEC) have met eight times prior to Friday with the Tigers holding a 5-3 edge in the all-time series and 2-1 in matches played as SEC counterparts. In what will be their fifth trip to Mizzou’s home, the Razorbacks are looking for their first-ever win in Columbia. Arkansas’ last win in the series was a straight-set triumph in 2012 at Barnhill Arena.
In Monday’s release of the national stat rankings, senior Meredith Hays was 14th in the NCAA with 4.58 kills per set and 20th in the nation at 5.05 per set. She leads the SEC in both categories with nine matches remaining in the 2014 regular season. In Arkansas’ last outing, Hays notched her team-leading seventh double-double of the season with 19 kills and 17 digs at Alabama. She has 15 or more kills in 15 of the Razorbacks’ matches this season.
Junior Chanell Clark-Bibbs enters the weekend on the heels of consecutive season-high performances. In Arkansas’ last two matches, the Houston, Texas, native registered matching 17-kill efforts against No. 16 Kentucky and Alabama. She averaged 4.86 kills per set with a .419 hitting percentage in last weekend’s matches. Clark-Bibbs is fourth in the SEC with a .391 hitting percentage in conference play.
Defensively, junior libero Monica Bollinger is averaging 4.12 digs per set against SEC opposition. Against Alabama, she tied for the match lead with 19 digs which moved her into 17th place on the program’s all-time digs list. Bollinger is now just two digs shy of becoming the 17th player in program history with 700 career digs. She established a career high of 28 digs earlier this season against Oral Roberts.
Following Friday’s match in Columbia, the Razorbacks will return to Fayetteville in preparation for their weekend finale at Barnhill Arena. Arkansas will host LSU on Sunday afternoon with first serve scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Sunday’s match will be the second meeting of the season between the two teams. The Tigers won a tight five setter Oct. 5 in Baton Rouge.
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