Alabama Volleyball Drops a Five Game Heartbreaker to Arkansas
10/28/2005 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
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Box Score
The Alabama volleyball team fell Friday night in a back and forth match with the Arkansas Lady'Backs 3-2 in Fayetteville. The Crimson Tide falls to 20-4 on the season, 8-3 in Southeastern Conference play while Arkansas improves to 15-8 overall, 8-3 in the SEC. The two schools are now tied for first place in the SEC Western Division.
The game was tightly contested with Arkansas barely out-hitting the Tide .249-.243. The Lady'Backs also had a 76-70 advantage in kills. Both teams had 78 digs on the night.
"It was two teams very evenly matched for four games," Alabama head coach Judy Green said. "It certainly was a battle of wills for four games. I think Arkansas' experience was the difference maker in the fifth game."
Even though the loss snapped the Tide's six match winning streak, Green believes the loss will help the Tide in the long run.
"I think we learned something very important about our team tonight and I think that it is important when you learn something about yourself," Green said. "Everybody now puts their head together to figure out what that is. I still believe this team is destined for greatness. We are young warriors with much too learn, but we played really hard tonight."
The Tide got off to a slow start, dropping game one to the Lady'Backs 30-23. Alabama got back on track in game two with a 30-26 win. In Game three, the Tide got down early but was able to rally back late, only to fall short 30-28. Alabama controlled game four of the match winning 30-19 to force a decisive game five. However, Arkansas took control of the game from the start jumping out to a big lead and winning 15-4.
Sarah Snider, Bridget Fuentez and Brigitte Slack each had double-doubles for the Tide. Snider had a career best 16 kills to go with 15 digs. Fuentez had a team high 18 kills and 12 digs, while Slack dished out 57 assists and had a season best 15 digs.
Also contributing for the Tide were Crystal Hudson with 15 kills and Jessica Yearout with 18 digs.
Denitza Koleva led the Lady'Backs with 23 kills. Christina Lawrence, Karla Crose and Kele Brewer reached double figures in kills as well, posting 17, 11 and 10 respectively.
Alabama travels to Baton Rouge, La. to face the LSU Tigers on Sunday afternoon. First serve is set for 1:30.
