RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. - Following their latest slate of home matches on Thursday and Friday, the Arkansas Tech volleyball team will make one more home stand on Monday night against non conference opponent Arkansas-Fort Smith before hitting the road once again later this week.
Arkansas Tech and Arkansas-Fort Smith have played each other in only one match prior to tomorrow nights clash which resulted in a 3-0 win for Arkansas-Fort Smith on October 1, 2011.
Last season, the Lions went 15-14 overall and posted a 10-7 record in the Lone Star Conference. So far this season, they are 10-8 overall with an even 3-3 record against Lone Star Conference opponents.
On offense, Reagan Macha leads the attack with 173 kills on the year so far on a 2.54 kill per set average. Following Macha is Hannah Holland with a 1.98 kill per set average with 131 total kills. Chrya Thompson has also contributed on the attack with 116 total kills. Pacing the Arkansas-Fort Smith offense is Chloe Price with 628 total assists on the year. Price is currently averaging 8.97 assists per set. Chloe Alderson has assisted on 86 plays so far this season. In terms of aces, Macha leads the Lions with 20. Lauren Weber follows with 19, while Holland has picked up 18 service aces.
Anchoring the Lions on defense is Weber with 323 digs on a 4.89 dig per set average. Price and Macha have also added to the dig effort with 168 and 158 total, respectively. Holding down the front of the net for Arkansas-Fort Smith is Holland with 11 solo and 37 assisted blocks on the year for a total of 48. Following Holland is Thompson with 40 and Kaelyn McDonald with 34 blocks on the season.
Moving to the Golden Suns,
Heather Thomas leads the offensive attack with 132 total kills, on a 1.83 kills per set average. Following Thomas is
Maddi Siedenburg with 122 kills on the year while averaging 2.65 kills per set.
Brianna Merkel slots in right behind Siedenburg with 102 kills on the season and
Lydia Hale has also contributed on the attack with 99 total kills on the season thus far. Pacing the offense is Merkel with 349 assists, while averaging 5.82 assists per set.
Gracie Palmer averages 2.51 assists per set and has set set up 178 total assists. In terms of service aces,
Jamie Myrick leads the team with 28, while
Megan Solberg follows with 24.
Anchoring the Golden Suns on defense is Solberg with 297 digs on the year and is averaging 4.13 digs per set. Myrick has also added plenty of help on defense with 180 total digs on a 2.54 dig per set average. Holding down the front of the net for the Golden Suns is Thomas with seven solo blocks and 44 assisted blocks, for 51 total on the season and is averaging 0.71 blocks per set. Following behind Thomas at the front of the net is Hale with 30 total blocks, while
Sierra Orton and
Olivia Crowl have both logged 17.
The match against Arkansas-Fort Smith will be held tomorrow night with first serve set to go at 6 p.m. in Tucker Coliseum.
