RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. — Building momentum throughout the day, the Arkansas Tech women's volleyball team picked up a pair of victories Saturday on the final day of its own tournament at Tucker Coliseum.

The Golden Suns (4-3) turned back Missouri Southern in the morning with a 3-1 win and earned a sweep of Ouachita Baptist in the final match of the event to move their streak to four wins in their last five matches.

Sophomore Madison Nagel turned in 37 digs over the two matches, while freshman Sarita Stegall dished out 74 assists over the seven sets. Hunter Eshnaur led the team with 26 kills, while Katie Huff added 23 kills and six blocks.

"It felt like we were a little up-and-down over the first three matches this weekend," coach Kristy Bayer said. "But we kind of came into our own in that fourth match against OBU. We kept our intensity, and even when we were down, we didn't play like we were down."

The Golden Suns opened their second day of competition with a four-set victory (25-16, 25-19, 21-25, 25-17) over Missouri Southern (0-8), paced by Huff, who had 13 kills while hitting  a team-high .478 and four blocks, and Stegall's 40 assists.

Eshnaur tallied five kills in the first set, while Nagel tallied seven of her 22 digs overall as Tech never trailed, hitting .361 as a team in the game. The Lions scored the first three points of the second set, and didn't trail through a tie at 7-7. From there, Huff posted a kill and an ace to start off a four-point run that put the Suns ahead for good.

The tables turned in the third set, as Tech went up by three points early, only to see the lead fall away. Huff picked up four kills and two blocks as the Golden Suns tried to mount a comeback, scoring eight of the game's final 12 points, but it wasn't quite enough. Tech rebounded nicely in the fourth and final set, leading by at least three points after an Eshnaur kill made it 5-2. Eshnaur posted seven of her match-high 14 kills in the set, with Stegall dishing out 11 assists.

In the final match of the tournament, Tech earned the sweep (25-20, 25-23, 25-18) over Great American Conference foe Ouachita Baptist (5-3) in a nonconference tilt. Each side came into the finale having won two of its first three matches in the tournament, and in the first set neither team could gain an advantage, as they stayed within a point of each other until the Tigers scored two straight to make it 11-9. From there, Tech scored five of the next six points, capped by two straight kills from Eshnaur to give the Suns a 14-12 lead. Kills from Huff, Stegall and Kaci Jackson, as well as a Jackson ace, helped Tech run off the final five points of the set for the win.

The Golden Suns never trailed in the second set, but faced a tough battle to the finish, with the Tigers tying the score at 18-, 19-, 20- and 21-all before kills from McCall Wilkins and Eshnaur handed Tech a 23-21 lead. Ouachita came back to tie it again, but Tech closed with two straight points to take the 2-0 lead in the match.

The Golden Suns begin GAC play this Tuesday, hitting the road for a 7 p.m. matchup at Southern Arkansas.

"This was a good weekend for us," Bayer said. "We were able to focus on what we needed to work on heading into our match against Southern Arkansas to open the conference season."

All-Tournament Team
Kori Bullard, Ouachita Baptist, So. M
Hunter Eshnaur, Arkansas Tech, Fr., OH
Ashley Gonzalez, Newman, Sr., M
Katie Huff, Arkansas Tech, Sr., M
Alexus Litts, Newman, Sr. S
Hunter Porter, Midwestern State, Sr., OH