VB Weekend in the Little Apple

[psycHOGlogist]

The Hogs travel to Manhattan to play in the K-State tournament this weekend. Play opens tonight with Kansas State, tomorrow we go up against #6 Wisconsin, and we finish Saturday with Syracuse. We would not be favored in either of the first two games, but probably would be against Syracuse.

But that's why you play the games!  Arkansas takes down K State in 5 behind a huge performance from Victoria (34 kills, .382) and complementary contributions from Dirrigl (Fr; 11 kills, .241), Robinson (So; 10, .261) , and Pamphile (Fr; 8, .286). The Hogs did a little bit better in the serve/pass game than the Wildcats, and Victoria was on filre. Really impressive road win for a young Hogs team. This one is a resume builder.

Don't have high hopes for their chances tomorrow against Wisky, but this is a really nice win.

[psycHOGlogist]

As expected, Hogs drop a 3-0 decision to the Badgers. I thought they played pretty well -- the sets were all reasonably close: 18, 21, 22 -- but we just couldn't do enough to slow down their offense, and we could not get enough offense out of anyone but Pilar (who was again sensational).

Tomorrow morning we finish the weekend with Syracuse. If we don't have a let down, we should win.

[psycHOGlogist]

Interestingly, though, Syracuse surprises everyone and defeats KSU in 4 sets. KSU changed their lineup around a bit and looked horrible. Tomorrow's match could be more competitive than I thought.

[psycHOGlogist]

Very strong performance in sweeping Syracuse. Pilar (19 kills, .371) got some help today from Fr Liz Pamphile (9k, .467) and Jr Kelly O'Brien (6k, .600). Rippee did a fantastic job setting, averaging over 12 assists/set, and leading the team to an overall attack efficiency of .337. We dominated the serve/pass game, which is something Coach Watson really tries to emphasize. We had 8 aces to their 3, and we generally handled their serves pretty well, whereas ours took them out of system frequently.

Game scores were -22, -13, -16.

We take second in the K State Invitational, while it's very likely the host Wildcats will take the 0-fer at home. Ouch. Great job by the ladies this weekend - very impressive stuff in a difficult venue (the KSU gym is loud and hot).

Next up is a mid-week (revenge) game in Barnhill against ORU, who beat us in 3 games last year in Tulsa. I am hoping we come out motivated and angry.

[psycHOGlogist]

The Hogs are now 5-1, which is two games better than my pre-season projection. I'll take that anytime.

Both Pilar Victoria and Liz Pamphile were named all-tournament at K-State. Impressive for a freshman (Pamphile)!