WARRENSBURG, Mo. - The Arkansas Tech Volleyball team falls to #1 Central Missouri (13-25, 22-25, 18-25) in the opening match of the NCAA DII Central Region Tournament. The Golden Suns finish the 2021 season with an overall record of 22-8 (.733) and a conference record of 13-3 (.812).
Leading the offense in her final match as a Golden Sun was senior middle blocker
Emily Ragsdale with 11 kills on 17 total attempts and only one error for an impressive .588 clip. Following Ragsdale was senior right-side hitter
Haylee Paladini with 10 kills. Senior outside hitter
Tymber Riley and freshman outside hitter
Abby Simpson also had a solid night on the attack with eight kills against the Jennies. Closing out the offensive attack for Tech was junior outside hitter
Kaitlynn Bradley with seven kills.
Pacing the Golden Suns offense was junior setter
Brianna Merkel with 37 total assists in the match. The junior setter also had two kills and six digs to add to her offensive performance.
Anchoring the defensive end of the floor for the Golden Suns was senior libero
Madison Grantham with 15 digs in the match. Following Grantham was freshman libero
Jamie Myrick with seven digs against Central Missouri. Riley also came up with five digs for Arkansas Tech. Ragsdale had the only block in the match for the Golden Suns.
After dropping the first set, the Golden Suns played a hard fought close second set against the Jennies. Tech took the lead in the set multiple times, but Central Missouri was able to end the second set stronger. Tech made another great effort in the final set, but the Jennies once again closed the set well to move on to the next round.
As a team, the Golden Suns led the match in kills, assists and digs with 46, 42 and 40 respectively.
The match against Central Missouri was the final match of the 2021 season for the Golden Suns. The Golden Suns had many accomplishments during the regular season going 9-0 at home, finishing third in the GAC in blocks, first in the GAC in aces and fifth in the GAC for both hitting percentage and opponent hitting percentage. Arkansas Tech also put together an incredible run in the GAC Tournament where they upset Oklahoma Baptist in the finals to be crowned the GAC Champions for the 2021 season.
