FAYETTEVILLE -- Watch Jenny Rangelova play volleyball for the Lady Razorbacks for a little while and you'll get dizzy.
The 5-foot-8 senior from Bulgaria is not only the shortest setter in Arkansas' eight-year volleyball history, but also the most active.
Her job is to chase the ball down wherever it goes and direct it so that Eftila Tanellari, Anna Velikanova, Libby Windell, Michelle Coens or one of the other taller Lady'Backs can put it away.
Tuesday night against Southwest Missouri State, Rangelova ranged all the way to where the UA cheerleaders stand, several feet behind the court, to dive for a ball.
She spends more time sprawled on the floor than any Lady'Backs athlete since Christy Smith of the 1998 Final Four basketball team.
And, like Smith, she gets the fans fired up and makes her teammates play better.
Rangelova, 21, has been at Arkansas just two years, having previously spent five years playing for the best club team in Bulgaria and two years at a university in Bulgaria.
"I've lived away from home since I was 13," Rangelova said. "I was just 40 minutes away for most of that time, but I've only been home once since August of 2000."
She didn't even get to see her older sister Cvetelina's wedding in Bulgaria three weeks ago.
"That was pretty sad," Rangelova said. "But she had known the guy for seven years, so I knew him pretty well."
Given her absence from such family milestones, it's a good thing Rangelova likes Arkansas and the United States.
"The University of Arkansas is the best," Rangelova said. "I like the team, the people and the university as a whole. Everyone is really nice."
Happily for Rangelova, Arkansas coach Chris Poole is an Arkansas Tech graduate.
"I have a friend from Bulgaria who is coaching at Arkansas Tech now, and she knew that Coach Poole was looking for a setter before last season," Rangelova said. "She gave him my e-mail address, and I sent him a tape. He liked me and that was it."
Poole liked Rangelova even better after she set a school record with 88 assists against Tennessee last season.
Rangelova doesn't approach that total these days, because she's sharing time with 6-foot sophomore setter Kelly McCarter of Kerrville, Texas.
"Using two setters is really good, because we're not a great defensive team," Rangelova said. "I like Coach Poole a lot; he's done a lot of good things this year. I think he may have a Czech girl coming in as a setter next year."
Arkansas, at 17-9 and 11-2 in the Southeastern Conference, seems headed to the NCAA Tournament this season, presuming good performances at Auburn and Alabama this weekend and in the SEC Tournament at Knoxville, Tenn., on Nov. 16-18.
"It depends what seed we get in the tournament," Rangelova said. "If we have a chance to be in the bracket with South Carolina or Tennessee, that would be better than starting out with Florida."
Ideally, Arkansas would meet No. 1 seed Florida in the finals.
"I think we can match with them then," Rangelova said. "We have to believe, like in the first game here. In the second and third games, we kinda went down."
The Lady Razorbacks were tied at 29 with Florida before losing Game 1 in Fayetteville on Oct. 26, then faltered in the final two games and haven't fully recovered since -- physically or mentally.
For example, Arkansas struggled to beat Southwest Missouri State 30-22, 30-28, 30-28 Tuesday night.
"They're good, but we shouldn't have given them that many points," Rangelova said.
A kinesiology major who won't get her degree until December 2002 because of the inexact transfer of credits from Bulgaria, Rangelova would like to play professionally in Europe and then coach either there or in the U.S.
But she'll enjoy returning to the UA next year.
"I like the Hog call," she said. "It's pretty nice. We don't have anything like that in Bulgaria. I like to go to basketball and football games, too."
Especially now that she can understand English so much better.
"When I first came here, I had to say, 'Hey, people, slow down,'" Rangelova said. "Now I hear and speak much better."
Now it's the UA opponents who are pleading with Rangelova to slow down.
