OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. - The Arkansas Tech volleyball team stays competitive but is handed a tough day on the court dropping their pair of road matches against Illinois-Springfield and Oklahoma Christian. The team ends the weekend with a 1-3 record against their four opponents across the Oklahoma Christian Tournament.
In their first matchup of the day against Illinois-Springfield (19-25, 14-25, 15-25), Arkansas Tech gave their best efforts to stay in the contest. In the first set the Prairie Stars went all out on the offensive attack making things tough for the Golden Suns to respond. After going down early in the set a pair of kills from
Emma Crenshaw got some energy back for Tech as they continued to dig their heels in and fight. A 6-1 run down the stretch for Illinois-Springfield would decide the set and give them the win. Crenshaw and
Heather Thomas finished the first set with four kills each, while
Gracie Palmer picked up nine assists.
The next two sets the Prairie Stars took control on the attack and came away with two more set wins to give them the victory over Arkansas Tech. In the first match, Thomas led the way on the offensive attack with eight kills, followed by Crenshaw with seven and
Lydia Hale with five. Pacing the offense was Palmer with 12 assists, while
Aspen Jankowski picked up 10 assists.
Leading the defensive effort was
Megan Solberg who collected 12 digs against the Prairie Stars. Following Solberg was
Jamie Myrick who came away with 10 digs.
In their final match of the weekend, Tech faced their hosts for the weekend in Oklahoma Christian which proved to be another tough, but competitive match (18-25, 21-25, 21-25). The opening set of the match saw Oklahoma Christian controlling the offense as an early run set them up for success leading to a first set win.
The start of the second set was tough for Tech facing an early 7-2 deficit. However, the Golden Suns found a run in them capitalizing off a few errors by the Eagles and getting some strong offense going with two kills from
Abigail Weaver and an ace from Palmer that gave them a 12-11 lead. From there the set went back and forth with Tech still holding an 18-17 lead following a kill by
Kaitlyn Neal and an error by the Eagles. A quick 4-0 run by Oklahoma Christian gave them the momentum they needed to take the set and move to the third set.
Arkansas Tech began the third set hot opening up with a flurry of kills from
Maddi Siedenburg, Weaver, Neal and
Olivia Crowl that powered them to an early 7-3 lead. The Eagles responded with their own run to take a 9-8 lead. Both sides continued to trade blows not allowing the other to score more than two consecutive points until Oklahoma Christian found themselves with a narrow 19-17 lead down the stretch. The Eagles would break the stalemate of offensive punches grabbing three straight points to give them the edge to take the third set and win the match.
Thomas once again led the way for the Golden Suns on offense with seven kills. Following Thomas was the trio of
Sierra Orton, Crowl and Siedenburg each putting down five kills. Closing out the leaders on the attack for Tech was Weaver and Neal with four kills each. Pacing the offense was Palmer with 21 assists, followed by Jankowski with nine and Solberg with four. The trio also combined for six aces in the match.
Solberg was once again the anchor on the defensive end with 16 digs. Myrick came away with nine digs, while Jankowski and Neal picked up seven.
The Golden Suns will stay on the road and look to bounce back in their next game on Monday night at 6 p.m. in Pine Bluff against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
