Sophomore outside hitter Abbie Siljendahl appeared in 28 matches last year, had a hitting percentage of only .097 and averaged 1.42 kills a game.

So in the offseason, she worked on her game.

The dividends of Siljendahl’s offseason work came most visibly in Western’s (17-4, 6-0 Sun Belt East) 3-2 (30-35, 33-35, 30-26, 27-30, 16-14) win over Arkansas-Little Rock(12-7, 4-3 SBC West) Saturday night at Diddle Arena.

“I’ve kind of been waiting for it to happen,” Siljendahl said. “It came at a good time. It has definitely been a slow process.”

Siljendahl finished with a career-high 19 kills and a career-best .630 hitting percentage. She had just two attack errors, which came in the fifth game.

“Abbie has some ability,” coach Travis Hudson said. “She worked her tail off in the offseason to turn herself into a player, and what you guys saw in that match against Little Rock are things we’ve seen in practice on more than one occasion. But for whatever reason when the bright lights come on she hasn’t gone out and played at that high level.”

The lights may just get brighter for Siljendahl. Hudson said Monday that junior outside hitter Whitney McCory has suffered a back injury and is going to be out a significant amount of time.

So when it looked like there was going to be depth at the outside hitter position with Siljendahl peaking, that notion was thrown out.

“Our depth is at zero right now on the outside,” Hudson said. “So it is going to be (sophomore outside hitter) Brittany Bowen and Abbie, and they’re both capable kids. I feel really good about it.”

Bowen is producing right now as well.

She had 20 kills against UALR and is fourth on the team with 2.55 kills per game. Junior middle hitter Megan Argabright leads the team with 3.97 kills per game.

“At this point in the season, it shouldn’t be too hard for us to step up,” Bowen said. “We definitely miss Whitney and it’s going to force us to step up and make plays.”

Statistically, it was a nearly overnight improvement for Siljendahl.

Prior to Saturday’s match, Siljendahl had just 11 kills and a .095 hitting percentage in Friday night’s 3-0 (30-15, 30-21, 30-26) win over Arkansas State (6-13, 2-5 SBC West).

Siljendahl said her off-season improvement came both on and off the court.

“I got into better physical shape and Travis really changed my approach and my arm swing, which has really helped me.”

Siljendahl said she is ready for the challenge of stepping up right now.

“It’s nice to feel like you’re really needed,” Siljendahl said.

Reach Andrew Robinson at chherald.com.