RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. — Closing out the regular season with five straight dominant victories over Great American Conference competition, the Arkansas Tech women's tennis team sealed up at least a share of the league crown for the third time in four seasons, and look to continue that success as the GAC Tournament kicks off Friday in Bentonville, Arkansas.

The Golden Suns (17-3, 5-1 GAC) collared all five of those wins by at least 7-2 after suffering their only conference loss of the season to seal a fourth consecutive trip to the league tournament. They've reached the title match in each of their previous three tries and took home the 2012 championship, with the team's three current seniors, Bohdana Sardak, Olga Leyshyna and Allison Grahl playing a big role the whole way.

"They've been responsible for a ton of wins," coach Abby Davis said. "Dana and Olga have played top-three in the lineup, which is tough to do, and have been successful.
"Allison is an Arkansas kid. She's been hurt for a lot of this year unfortunately, but she's made significant contributions, won matches when she's had to win matches. She's been a big part of the last 3-4 years."

Sardak, who has been a first-team all-GAC performer in each of her three seasons at Tech, as well as conference player of the year in 2012-13, has put together an impressive 50-18 career record in singles play while going 54-22 in doubles. Leyshyna, a two-time second-team all-GAC honoree and conference newcomer of the year last season, and is 41-13 for her career in singles, and 43-13 at doubles, all partnered with Sardak.

Grahl, who has been at Tech for four seasons, compiled a career mark of 29-10 in singles and an impressive 25-8 in doubles.

The Golden Suns, who are ranked fourth in the latest Central Region poll and earned the second seed in the conference tournament, face the winner of East Central and Henderson State in Friday's 3 p.m. semifinal at the Memorial Park Tennis Complex in Bentonville, with a victory moving them on to Saturday's 2 p.m. final.

"I think the whole team's excited," Davis said. "But Dana and Olga play No. 1 doubles together, and I think after the loss to Southeastern [Oklahoma], we got refocused and those two definitely want to go out on top. They're highly motivated to finish the rest of the season and hopefully win the tournament and get us back on top."