RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. — Led by 19 kills from Hunter Eshnaur and 53 assists out of Sarita Stegall, the Arkansas Tech women's volleyball team was able to hold off a solid challenge from Southwestern Oklahoma, getting a 3-1 victory Friday night at Tucker Coliseum.
The Golden Suns (14-5, 8-0 Great American Conference) started out with an easy first set, but had to fight back against the Bulldogs (11-8, 5-3 GAC) in order to take the 25-14, 25-21, 20-25, 25-20 win and remain unbeaten in conference play at the halfway point of the schedule.
"I thought we played pretty well against the third-place team in the conference," coach Kristy Bayer said. "Unfortunately, we're still giving up too many runs in the middle of sets and letting teams back in it. We need to be a little more consistent there, but overall I thought we played well. We have to focus and get prepared for another good team in Northwestern Oklahoma tomorrow."
Eshnaur tallied her 19 kills on .359 hitting, adding four aces and eight digs, while Katie Huff added 13 kills on .458 hitting and a pair of blocks. McCall Wilkins totaled five blocks to go with eight kills and just one error, while Kaci Jackson and Madison Nagel combined for 26 digs in the back row.
"Hunter Eshnaur did a great job getting kills for us when we needed them," Bayer said. "She was mixing the ball up on the court and had a really nice match. Sarita Stegall was making good choices offensively, and we were able to turn that into points for the team."
The opening set went about as smoothly as possible for the Suns, who never trailed after an Owen kill made it 3-2 early in the set. A 5-0 run shot the team out to a 10-4 lead and was bookended by a pair of Huff kills, and Tech scored 11 of the final 16 points to jump out to the lead after one game. Eshnaur had four kills, while Huff added three a block in the set, which saw the hosts hit .393 as a team.
Things started out just as quickly for Tech in the second, getting two straight kills from Owen and one from Stegall to net the first three points, and a quick three-point run capped by kills from Kaylee Konsella and Stegall made it an 11-6 Golden Suns advantage. The teams went point-for-point from there until a SWOSU service error followed by two kills each from Konsella and Huff suddenly pushed the lead to 22-14 in favor of the hosts. The Bulldogs jumped right back into it though, even scoring two points when facing set point before Huff and Stegall stuffed an attack to end it.
Four kills — two from Owen — and an Eshnaur ace got the Suns out to a 6-1 lead to start the third set, but it didn't take as long for the guests to start chipping away at that lead. After going up 13-10, Tech saw the Bulldogs score five straight points to take their first lead of the night. Two more after a Tech error made it 17-14 in favor of SWOSU. A kill followed by an ace from Jackson followed by an Eshnaur kill tied things back up. Eshnaur kills would do the same at 18-18 and 19-19, but another five-point run from SWOSU pushed it to 24-19 and the Bulldogs would put the set away. Tech hit .344 in the set, with Eshnaur notching five kills, but SWOSU countered by hitting .560.
Katie Huff picked up four kills early in the fourth set to boost the Suns out to a quick 9-2 lead, and back-to-back kills from Eshnaur and an ace out of Marisa Drevenak made it 12-3. The hosts would stretch the advantage out as far as 15-4 after a Stegall ace and a solo block by Wilkins, but the Bulldogs would not go quietly. Running off a 5-0 streak, followed one Tech point later by a 6-0 run got SWOSU within one at 16-15, and they tied it up at 17-all and 18-all before a kill from Owen and three straight by Eshnaur made it 22-18. Eshnaur, who posted seven kills on 12 attempts in the fourth, made it 23-19 before a block from Wilkins and Stegall and a kill from Wilkins ended it.
The Golden Suns hit .319 for the match, adding eight team blocks, while the Bulldogs attacked at a .273 clip.
Tech is back in action Saturday afternoon at 2, facing Northwestern Oklahoma back at Tucker Coliseum.
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