UA Women’s Sports Notebook: Volleyball opens SEC slate; Soccer earns No. 1 ranking

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

FAYETTEVILLE – The University Arkansas volleyball program will get its SEC slate going with visiting Georgia on Wednesday night – a day before the school’s highest-ranked soccer squad is back in action.

The Razorbacks’ softball squad will also host an exhibition on Thursday night while the women’s tennis team is coming off action in Cary, N.C.

The Volleyball Razorbacks (10-2, 0-0) are set to host Georgia (6-4, 0-0) Wednesday night at 8 p.m. at Barnhill Arena in a match that will be televised by the SEC Network.

Arkansas, who leads the all-time series with Georgia 28-14, will also host Ole Miss on Sunday at noon, which will also be televised on the SEC Network.

The Razorbacks went 2-1 last weekend in the Miami 305 Challenge with wins over Texas Tech (3-1) and Florida International (3-2) after falling in their opener to host Miami (3-0).

Georgia, who has won the last two meetings with Arkansas, is back on the floor for the first time since losing to visiting rival Georgia Tech before a record-crowd of 4,022 fans at Stegeman Coliseum.

The Lady Bulldogs are led by 6-5 middle blocker Sophie Fischer, one of 36 players on the 2024 AVCA Division I Player of the Year Award watch list.

Arkansas volleyball has sold over 900 season tickets, a program record up from 628 a season ago.

Eight of the program’s 10 highest-attended matches at Barnhill Arena came during the 2023 season, and 20 of the 25 best-ever were in the last four seasons.

That includes three of four matches of the 2024 Wooo Pig Invitational held earlier this month while the Razorbacks have averaged over 1,000 fans at each match in the last two seasons.

Arkansas also smashed the previous single season attendance record of 19,607 set in 2022 with a whopping 40,078 in 2023.

The Razorbacks checked in at 16th nationally in average attendance last season at 2,358 over 17 matches, which was the second-best in the SEC.

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The Arkansas soccer team (7-0-1, 2-0) will be in action Thursday night at Vanderbilt at 7 p.m. and also host No. 23 South Carolina on Sunday at 1 p.m.

The Razorbacks rose to No. 1 in this week’s TopDrawerSoccer’s poll and No. 2 in the United Soccer Coaches’ rankings – the highest the program has been in either poll.

Arkansas Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Hunter Yurachek praised the job head coach Coby Hale has done with the Razorbacks.

“This week’s No. 1 ranking is further validation that Razorback Soccer has become one of the most respected programs in collegiate soccer,” Yurachek said. “What Coach Colby Hale has done in his time with our program is transformational.

“I know that Coach Hale and his team are focused on winning a conference championship and advancing to the College Cup. However, this week’s ranking is notable and worth celebrating as a milestone in our program’s history.”

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Arkansas’ softball team will see some new faces when it hosts Seminole State for an exhibition Thursday night at 6 p.m. at Bogle Park.

The program hosted their first Razorbacks Unlimited intersquad scrimmage last Friday with the top three scorers being outfielder Raigan Kramer, catcher Kennedy Miller and outfielder Reagan Johnson.

The rest of the Arkansas Fall exhibition schedule includes the Razorbacks hosting Missouri State on Oct. 6 for a 1 p.m. doubleheader and traveling to Tulsa on Oct. 12 to face the Golden Hurricane at 12:30 and Oklahoma State at 3 p.m.

Arkansas will also sandwich two more Razorbacks Unlimited on Oct. 10 and Oct. 25 around home exhibitions with Oklahoma Christian on Oct. 17 and Arkansas Tech on Oct. 18.

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The Arkansas women’s tennis has been in action this week at the ITA All-American Championship at Cary, N.C.

Arkansas’ Carolina Gomez Alonso concluded her first round match of the singles main draw on Tuesday after entering as the No. 15 seed, but No. 81 Catherine Aulia grabbed a 6-3, 6-7, 6-1 victory.

Gomez Alonso will next face Kate Fakih (UCLA) later in the event.

Arkansas has also had a pair of tandems competing in the doubles consolation draw.

No. 71 Olga Bienzobas and Alonso notched a top-50 win over No. 48 Arai/Gonzalez (Miami) while finishing 2-2 in the event

No. 51 Anet Koskel/Grace O’Donnell also faced a top-50 opponent in No. 49 Dorner/Uchijima (Penn State) with the Razorbacks falling in straight sets to end their run in Cary.