ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — After fending off a tough challenge in the first set, the Arkansas Tech women's volleyball team never trailed in the final two to bring home a 3-0 victory over Ouachita Baptist in Great American Conference play Thursday night.

Senior Katie Huff led the way with 13 kills on a .435 hitting percentage — the fifth time in the last eight matches she's hit over .400 — to go with four blocks and a pair of aces in the 28-26, 25-19, 25-15 victory. The Golden Suns (9-5, 3-0 GAC) also picked up 41 assists, 10 digs and four kills on six swings from freshman Sarita Stegall, and 10 kills and seven digs from freshman Hunter Eshnaur to turn back the Tigers (7-4, 2-1 GAC). Junior Kaylee Konsella chipped in with 11 kills on .346 hitting to go with three blocks, while sophomore Haley Owen provided six kills and three more blocks and sophomore Madison Nagel added 13 digs.

"I was proud of the way our team persevered in a tough environment," coach Kristy Bayer said. "We started off a little slow, but we were able to pull ourselves out of it. OBU is a strong conference opponent, but we were able to execute a solid gameplan."

The Golden Suns had to climb back into the first set after staring down a deficit, as the Tigers went from down 3-1 to up 7-4 and didn't trail again until 23-22. Tech trailed by as many as seven in the middle parts of the match, and used two kills from Stegall and one each from Huff and Eshnaur to get back to a tie when Konsella delivered a block. An Owen kill gave the Suns the lead once again, and another from Konsella put them one point away from the win at 24-23, but Ouachita responded. Facing set point for the second time — the first was thwarted by a Huff kill — at 26-25, Tech scored three straight, wrapping kills from Stegall and Kaci Jackson around an OBU error to lock up the win.

From that point, Tech faced just five ties — all in the early stages of the second set — and otherwise held the lead the rest of the way. Konsella helped keep the Suns in that position, providing four kills and a block early in the second set, and an Eshnaur kill broke the final tie, making it 16-15. Kills from Konsella and sophomore McCall Wilkins helped extend the lead to four, and Huff was in on three of the final four points, getting a kill and teaming up with Owen and Eshnaur on blocks to go up 2-0 in the match.

The Suns got off to a fast start in the final set, and didn't look back, hitting .342. Huff posted five kills in the set and Konsella added four. A 5-0 run took Tech from up three to a 17-9 lead and included two kills from Konsella and an Eshnaur ace. Owen followed up a kill with a solo block on the next point to push the Suns closer to the win, and back-to-back kills from Wilkins and Eshnaur finished it off.

Tech heads back on the road to Arkadelphia on Tuesday to face Henderson State at 6 p.m.