RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. — Haley Owen hit .579 with a 11-kill performance, Hunter Eshnaur notched six service aces, while Sarita Stegall dished out 41 assists to lead the Arkansas Tech Golden Suns volleyball team (11-5, 5-0 Great American Conference) to a 3-1 win over Arkansas-Monticello (6-6, 1-4 GAC) on Friday evening at Tucker Coliseum.

The Golden Suns pushed out to a 2-0 match lead on the strength of a 25-18 opening set win and a 25-11 second-set win. However, the Cotton Blossoms rallied to take a 25-20 win in the third set before Tech was able to close out the match with a 25-20 win in the fourth.

"There were times that we struggled," said Golden Suns head coach Kristy Bayer. "We've got to be able to pull ourselves out better when we're not playing well than we did tonight. UAM played really hard, and they did an amazing job."

The offensive efficiency for the Golden Suns was at its peak in the first two sets as the Golden Suns notched 30 kills versus just four errors, hitting .423 in the opening set and .517 in the second set. The strong offensive performance in the opening two sets gave the Golden Suns a .266 to .152 advantage over UAM for the match, paced by Owen's match-best .579 percentage.

"(Haley) was really good," said Bayer. "Not only was she efficient offensively but she gave us a lot of energy. I wanted someone to contribute something, with vocal leadership and execution and she did everything that we needed something to do."

Madison Nagel chipped in 14 digs in the winning effort, while Kaci Jackson added ten. Eshnaur had a double-double, adding 13 kills and 11 digs with her six aces while Stegall narrowly missed one of her own, turning in eight digs to go with her 41 assists.

The Golden Suns return to action next week, heading to Oklahoma on Thursday and Friday for matchups with Southeastern Oklahoma on Thursday and East Central on Friday. Both matches are slated for 7 p.m. starts.

Live video and statistics for the matches is available at www.arkansastechsports.com.