UA volleyball

After a success in the fall, the Arkansas volleyball team will begin the second part of its schedule today and Saturday when it hosts No. 4 Kentucky at Barnhill Arena in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas volleyball team enjoyed more SEC success in its abbreviated fall season than in either of the past two regular ones, but now the Razorbacks will try to keep that going heading into uncharted waters in the spring.

Arkansas went 6-2 in the SEC-only fall slate, knocked off a ranked opponent for the first time since 2015 and earned a No. 15 ranking in the final American Volleyball Coaches Association poll of the fall. The Razorbacks will now play a spring schedule because of the pandemic. The NCAA Tournament was also pushed to the spring and the field of 64 teams has been sliced to 48.

Sophomore Jillian Gillen said the Razorbacks, who only won five SEC matches in each of the past two seasons, played with a chip on their shoulder and it paid off.

“We were kind of in a mindset we have nothing to lose, we can play our hearts out,” said Gillen, an athletic 5-10 outside hitter. “I think that helped get us through those eight games and will lead us to more success.

“I think we’re super confident going in. Even just those eight games, we know what we’re capable of now.

We know what we can do.”

But Arkansas will dive into the deep end of the pool to begin the second part of its schedule hosting No. 4 Kentucky, today and Saturday at Barnhill Arena. The Wildcats went 8-0 in the fall and are the threetime defending SEC champions. Today’s match is slated to start at 5 p.m., while Saturday’s will begin at 2:30. Saturday’s match will be broadcast on the SEC Network. Tonight’s match will be on SEC Network-plus.

The spring portion of the schedule will also be SEC-only with eight opponents playing twice in the same week on back-to-back days. The schedule also includes a week at the end of the season for any make-up matches.

Arkansas already had its schedule altered before even playing a match. Auburn decided to cancel the spring portion of its season since a combination of opt-outs and injuries put them below the minimum threshold required by the league to compete. The Razorbacks were scheduled to play at Auburn on March 24-25.

Arkansas Coach Jason Watson was pleased with his team’s performance in the fall but admitted this time is different.

“This is a whole new deal now and we have to be careful is to think what happened in the fall is just going to extend itself into the spring,” Watson said. “I think they are two mutually exclusive seasons that we have to prepare for.

“I feel good about that body of work, but now we’ve got to keep it going.”

The Razorbacks’ recipe for success relied on utilizing a strong serve led by Gillen to keep usually bigger opponents off-balance.

“We’re the John Daly of college volleyball,” Watson said. “We’re gonna grip it and rip it and we have to because we’ve got to knock you out of system. As a coach, you got to be prepared, there’s a cost for that. But we’re OK with that, we’re tolerant of that cost.”

That’s because if you take away service errors, the Razorbacks were one of the best in the SEC at limiting mistakes.

“One interesting stat is errors over 100 rallies and if you look at that and take out service errors, the two cleanest volleyball teams in the SEC will be playing in Barnhill this weekend,” Watson said. “I do think if you’re not tall, you’ve got to play clean.

“I always thought if you can play clean, you can win a lot of volleyball matches. We’ve got some kids who play clean.”

Watson also credited junior setter Gracie Ryan’s play as a key to the team’s success in the fall.

“The quality of her decision-making along with the tempo and locations of her sets were big for us,” Watson said. “I think she’s probably undervalued as a setter in our league.”

One area of concern for Watson is the lack of practice time prior to Friday’s opener compared to their first match in the fall. That’s especially big for a team that needs to be solid serving and passing, he said.

“We haven’t had the volume of serve and pass reps,” Watson said. “That’s a big part of who we are. I’m slightly nervous about that. More than slightly nervous, I’m greatly concerned.”