No. 22 Arkansas volleyball split two matches at the Tulsa Volleyball Invitational, falling to Tulsa 3-2 (21-25, 18-25, 25-17, 25-22, 8-15) on Thursday and beating Stephen F. Austin 3-0 (25-13, 25-13, 25-13) on Friday.
Arkansas will face Miami, Florida International and Texas Tech in the Canes Classic in Miami beginning Sept. 19.
“The weekend in general showed us the need to be clean,” coach Jason Watson said. “We struggled Thursday night. Tonight, Friday, we had some nice production out of our left sides and so, different result.”
The Razorbacks struggled with outside scoring on Thursday and were better in Friday’s win, but that will be an emphasis heading into the Canes Classic at Miami.
Friday’s contest against Stephen F. Austin was a rematch of last season’s NCAA Tournament opener, which Arkansas also won in a 3-0 sweep.
The Razorbacks had a strong defensive outing, only allowing 13 points in each set, and had a balanced scoring effort. Olivia Ruy and Romani Thurman tied for a match-high 14 kills while Aniya Madkin had 13 kills.
The attack, particularly on the left side, was much improved over Thursday’s defeat. That will be an emphasis as Arkansas prepares for its nonconference-closing Miami trip.
“To come back out the next night, with a limited amount of prep, to be able to play the manner in which you try to play every match, I think that was a pretty significant moment for us,” Watson said. “For some young kids in some key spots, they’ve got to learn and they’ve got to grow.”
The Razorbacks fell behind 2-0 against the Golden Hurricane on Thursday before coming back to force a fifth set. Tulsa, Watson said, is a team that plays clean and can make it difficult to rebound from an early deficit.
Tulsa, led by Lauren Eitler’s 21-dig, 10-kill double-double, beat Arkansas 15-8 in the tie-breaking set to give the Razorbacks their first loss of the season.
“You can only do that so many times,” Watson said. “When you get into a fifth set like that, it’s a sprint, not a marathon. They jumped on us pretty good. You want to avoid that as much as you can.
“But there’s some good things. We didn’t roll over, we tried and we battled and we came up short there in the fifth. So there’s some positives from it.”
That improvement — “on-the-job training,” Watson called it — is the focus ahead of the weekend Miami trip and SEC play. The Razorbacks lost several key players from last season’s Elite Eight team and have been integrating newcomers into those spots.
“We’re just learning to be better volleyball players longer,” Watson said. “I think there’s opportunities for them there because they continue to be engaged in learning. I think they’re asking good questions. They’re certainly mindful in the gym, the practice environment.”