FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Northwestern State struggled through its roughest offensive outing of the season Friday night, falling 3-0 to host Arkansas on the opening night of the Razorback Invitational.
 
NSU (2-6) hit a season-low minus-.043 for the match and collected just 13 kills. After a fast start to the match, Arkansas' physical nature proved a challenge to the Northwestern State offense.
 
Arkansas took the first set, 25-16, before closing the match out with 25-11 and 25-15 victories in the second and third sets.
 
"We came out and played within a game plan for the first 10 points and really executed well," first-year head coach Sean Kiracofe said. "For Arkansas being the biggest block we have seen all season when we were able to run our offense, we were very productive. Our serve receive broke down, and we just didn't have the opportunities to push Arkansas defensively. When you let a big team like that run what they want to, it's not going to look good from our team perspective.
 
Arkansas (6-1) hit .333, led by Breana Jones (7 kills, .778 hitting percentage) and Chanell Clark-Bibbs (9 kills, .727 hitting percentage). Pilar Victoria paced Arkansas' offense with 10 kills. Adrien Wohlschlaeger helped set up the hitters, delivering 34 assists.
 
The Razorbacks' service game was productive as well, delivering eight aces, four of which came from Clark-Bibbs.
 
Caiti O'Connell paced Northwestern State with four kills, while Amanda Kunz added three for NSU, which dropped its fourth straight match, all in tournament play.
 
Northwestern State returns to action with a pair of matches Saturday when it faces former Southland Conference foe Texas-Arlington at 1 p.m. and Southeast Missouri State at 4:30 p.m. to wrap up its third tournament of the season.