DURANT, Okla. — Behind a career-high 20 kills from Hunter Eshnaur and 50 assists from Sarita Stegall, the Arkansas Tech women's volleyball team survived a scare in its first roadtrip to Oklahoma Thursday night against Southeastern Oklahoma.

The Golden Suns (12-5, 6-0 Great American Conference) held off a tough effort from the Savage Storm (4-13, 2-4 GAC), having to hold off comeback attempts from the hosts in each of the final three sets of a 3-1 (18-25, 25-23, 25-23, 28-26) victory at Bloomer Sullivan Gymnasium.

Eshnaur picked up her 20 kills on 44 attempts, finishing with a .386 hitting percentage and added two blocks, while Stegall chipped in with three aces. The freshmen both secured double-doubles on the night as well, adding 11 and 12 digs, respectively. Katie Huff and Kaylee Konsella each added 11 kills, with Konsella adding three blocks, and McCall Wilkins posted four blocks to go with her eight kills. Madison Nagel led the defense with 22 digs and added two aces.

After dropping the first set, the Golden Suns fell behind quickly in the second, going down 11-5 after a 5-0 run by the Storm. Tech responded a few points later with a run of its own, coming back to tie things at 12-all on kills from Haley Owen and Huff and three from Eshnaur. The teams went back and forth with short runs until the Storm went up 21-19. From that point, Konsella knocked home a kill and followed it with an ace to tie it up, and Eshnaur followed with two straight kills to make it 24-22 before a Southeastern error ended the set.

The Suns didn't take as long to get warmed up in the third set, sprinting on a 10-point run to take it from a 4-2 Southeastern lead to a 12-4 Tech advantage. Two kills from Konsella and one from Eshnaur, along with a block by Konsella and Wilkins and a number of errors, lifted the Suns on the streak. A block from Stegall and Eshnaur, followed by a Wilkins kill made it 21-13 in favor of the guests, but two big runs by the Storm made for a tight finish. The final one saw Southeastern deny the Suns four straight set points before Konsella stopped it and ended the set with a kill.

The runs continued into the fourth set, with Tech running off four straight points to take its first lead at 4-3, and followed later by a 7-0 run, bolstered by two kills and a block from Konsella, to make it 13-5. Southeastern netted 10 of the next 14 points to jump right back in it though. Two kills by Huff stretched the Tech lead back to six, but the Storm didn't go away. With the Suns up 24-21, Southeastern scored four straight to get to its first set point since the first game, and had another shot when up 26-25. Another kill from Huff kept Tech in it, and Eshnaur sealed the match with back-to-back kills.

Tech hit .214 as a team, and held Southeastern to .191, including just .067 over the last two sets.

The Golden Suns complete their roadtrip Friday with a 7 p.m. match at East Central.

                                                                                                             -FIGHTON-