Middle Tennessee falls to Arkansas in Saturday's finale

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Ashley Adams tallied a match-high 13 kills on Saturday night, but it wasn't enough as the Middle Tennessee volleyball team fell to host Arkansas 3-0 (22-25, 20-25, 21-25) at Barnhill Arena in Fayetteville, Ark.

Adams, who tallied 17 kills in the first match of the day, finished the night with a .308 hitting percentage. Oyinlola Oladinni was second in the match with nine, and Maria Szivos chipped in seven.

As a team, the Blue Raiders tallied 43 kills to the Razorbacks' 35, but Arkansas had the advantage in attack errors and outhit MT .277 to .206.

Defensively, Szivos totaled eight digs, and Kendall Howard had five.

Lindsay Cheatham led the defense at the net with three block assists, but as a team the Blue Raiders were out-blocked 8.0 to 4.5.

Middle Tennessee battled back and forth with Arkansas in the opening stanza, which featured 10 ties in the early going, but the Razorbacks ran off four straight points to take a 17-13 lead and wouldn't trail again.

Oladinni put up four kills in the second set, but Arkansas hit a big run to stretch an early 7-6 edge to an 18-9 advantage to send the Blue Raiders into the break down 2-0.

The third set would mirror the opening two, with Arkansas hitting a mid-set run and ultimately holding on for the 25-21 victory.

The Blue Raiders (0-2) will now head home for the first of two tournaments over the next two weeks. On Thursday, Middle Tennessee will welcome in Missouri before kicking off the Blue Raider Bash at Alumni Memorial Gym and Murphy Center on Friday.

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