RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. — Following a successful regular season that saw it clinch a second straight outright conference title and put together an 18-match winning streak, the Arkansas Tech women's volleyball team is heading back to a place that is both familiar and friendly when it next hits the court.
When the Great American Conference Volleyball Championship opens Thursday afternoon at Bank of the Ozarks Arena at the Hot Springs Convention Center, the Golden Suns (25-6, 15-1 GAC) will once again be the top seed, and will look to repeat the same path to a title they took in both previous events on the same floor.
"We're excited to get down to Hot Springs," coach Kristy Bayer said. "We have four seniors who will be making their third trip to that arena and have played in GAC postseason play for four years. I think they really know the meaning of it, and having them is really going to help from a leadership standpoint."
It is the eighth consecutive year that Tech has earned a spot in conference postseason play, and that run encompasses each of the five years the GAC has been in existence. The Suns have been nearly unbeatable at the GAC Tournament, going 11-1 all-time in the event and dropping only nine total sets. Their only loss came in the 2012 championship match, in what was a road contest at top-seeded Harding. Since the event moved to a neutral setting in Hot Springs, Tech has gone 6-0 and won a pair of titles.
The Suns open up the tournament with a 5 p.m. matchup against eighth-seeded Southeastern Oklahoma. Tech owns a 9-2 advantage over the Savage Storm (7-22, 5-11 GAC) all-time, including a 3-1 victory earlier this season. Freshman Hunter Eshnaur turned in a season-high 20 kills on .386 hitting to go with 10 digs in that matchup, while classmate Sarita Stegall dished out 50 assists and sophomore Madison Nagel put up 22 digs in the win.
"As we keep adding teams to the GAC, there's not going to be an easy out in any round," Bayer said. "Southeastern played us tough over at their place earlier this year, and I expect tough rounds in the first round, second round and the finals. At this point in the season, there's no easy matches."
Eshnaur leads the GAC with 4.41 points per set, and is third in kills at 3.82 and fourth with 41 total aces. Stegall is second with 10.44 assists, and Nagel is fifth with 5.00 digs per set. Senior Katie Huff closed her final regular season by leading the conference with a .332 hitting percentage, and is 12th in the conference with 2.84 digs while leading the team with 0.79 blocks per set.
Fellow seniors Kaci Jackson, Colleen Wooten and Rachel Hampton have played important roles on the team as well. Jackson is second on the team at 2.91 digs per set, and has turned up the offense late in the season, averaging 2.38 kills per set over the past five matches. Wooten has put up 1.67 digs per set this season, while also turning it on late with a 2.33 average over her last five matches, including a career-high 12 on Senior Night against Ouachita Baptist. Hampton matched a season high with seven kills in each of her last two matches, including against OBU, when she hit .333.
Junior Kaylee Konsella adds to the offensive attack with 2.20 kills per set on .235 hitting and adds 0.58 blocks per set, while sophomore McCall Wilkins is second on the team with 0.64 blocks and fourth at 2.16 kills per set while hitting .267.
With a win against Southeastern, Tech would move on to a 6 p.m. semifinal Friday against the winner of fourth seed Southern Arkansas and fifth seed Harding. The Muleriders (18-13, 9-7 GAC) took the Suns to five sets in Magnolia, Arkansas in the season's first conference match, one of just two conference teams to do so against Tech this year. The Suns turned back Harding in a tough three-set sweep early in the season, before the Bisons (15-15, 9-7) earned a 3-1 victory in Searcy, Arkansas a week ago.
Second-seeded Southern Nazarene (15-16, 11-5) was the other team to force the Suns to five sets this season, marking a third consecutive meeting to go the distance between the two teams, including last year's GAC Tournament championship match, which was won in thrilling fashion by Tech. They are joined on the other side of the bracket by third seed Southwestern Oklahoma (19-11, 10-6), sixth seed Northwestern Oklahoma (11-17, 8-8) and seventh seed Ouachita Baptist (15-11, 8-8).
The championship match is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday, and getting there and winning for another time is crucial to the team's goal of reaching another NCAA regional tournament, as the conference's automatic bid is the only way to crack the Central Region field.
"Not to be looking ahead, but we know in order to reach our goal and continue our season after this week, we need to win," Bayer said. "So that's also on our mind as we head down there."
All seven matches of the event will be available live at www.gacsportsnetwork.com. Live statistics will be available for Tech matches at www.arkansastechsports.com.
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