The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Arkansas
Volleyball Drops To No. 24 Arkansas, 3-0
11/7/1999 | Volleyball
Nov. 7, 1999
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.--Despite three services aces by junior Renata Nowacki, the Ole Miss Lady Rebel volleyball team lost 3-0 (15-6, 15-6, 15-10) to 24th-ranked Arkansas on the road on Sunday afternoon.
The Lady Rebels drop to 9-18 overall and 0-13 in the Southeastern Conference, while the Lady Razorbacks improve to 23-5 overall and 12-1 in the SEC and clinch their fifth consecutive western division title.
After falling behind 4-0 in the first game, the Lady Rebels fired back on a pair of attacking errors by Arkansas and kills by freshman Erin Newsom and junior Kira Zschau, scoring four consecutive points to tie the game. Arkansas then went on a five point run stopped by an Ole Miss timeout. The Lady Rebels came out of the break and scored their last two points of the game on an Arkansas attacking error and a kill by sophomore Jaime Burns. Arkansas then closed out the game 15-6 on another five point run.
Game two saw the Lady Rebels come out and take a 5-3 lead, aided by service aces by Nowacki and Zschau. Arkansas then scored six unanswered to take the 9-3 advantage. Ole Miss got its final point of the game on a kill by senior Lauren Dorcheus before Arkansas took advantage of five Lady Rebel attacking errors and closed out the game with a service ace.
The final game saw the Lady Rebels comeback attempt fall short. After trailing 3-0, Nowacki fired off two service aces and got some help with kills by freshman Erica Tricco and sophomore Leigh Rittiner to take the 4-3 lead. Arkansas came back with a four point run of its own to pull ahead 7-4. Ole Miss would not be denied as the Lady Rebels went on a 5-3 run to close the gap to within one, but they could not hold on. A key block by Arkansas' Yarleen Santiago and Libby Windell and a service ace by Ashanti Taylor led the Lady Razorbacks to the game and the match.
Offensively, the Lady Rebels were led by Zschau with 11 kills. She has been the only Lady Rebel to post double digit kill numbers in both matches during the weekend. Defensively, Ole Miss could produce only one block and one Lady Rebel with a double digit dig mark against the Lady Razorbacks, both provided by freshman Sarah Lansden.
With three aces in the match, Nowacki has now had an ace in 12 of her last 17 matches and leads the team in service aces per game. Senior setter Lisa Frannino added 18 assists to her career total and is now only 68 shy of the career mark at Ole Miss. She would need to average 23 assists in the final three matches to break the school record set by Liz Poerner from 1993-1996.
Ole Miss will now face Jackson State at home on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. at the Women's Sports Complex before concluding the 1999 campaign with a pair of matches against in-state conference rival Mississippi State on Friday and Sunday. The Lady Rebels dominated Jackson State 3-0 in their first meeting this season, allowing the Lady Tigers to only put up six points for the match, and now lead the all-time series 10-1. Ole Miss has also dominated the series with Mississippi State with 48 wins to only eight losses, but two of those losses came last season, as the Lady Rebels were swept in their season finale.
Ole Miss 6 6 10Arkansas 15 15 15
Ole Miss (9-18, 0-13 SEC), Arkansas (23-5, 12-1 SEC)
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