KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Arkansas Tech volleyball team made its way to Kansas City on Friday for an evening non-conference match against Rockhurst University. The Golden Suns would come out on the down side of a 3-0 decision against the Hawks.
In the match, the Golden Suns ran into a white-hot offensive attack by the Hawks and weren't able to get their footing in the first set. Rockhurst would put down 14 kills in the set while committing just one error. On their offensive end, the Golden Suns weren't able to get much going with five kills and seven errors.
The Golden Suns were able to settle into the match some and found a ton more success in set two. At the start of the set, however, the Golden Suns found themselves trailing 5-0 early and later 13-5. Tech would stage a comeback effort at that point and rattled off five-straight points to get within three points of the lead.
Rockhurst then pushed their lead back out to five points and maintained that lead to the 17-12 score. Resilient once more, the Golden Suns went on a scoring run of 4-0 to close the deficit to a single point. The Hawks were able to keep out in front of Tech for the time being until the Golden Suns eventually tied the score at 22-all.
After Rockhurst scored the next two points to get to set point, the Golden Suns scored twice to knot the score at 24-all and force extra action in the set. The Hawks would register kills on the next two services to close out the set, 26-24.
Set three was closely-contested early on, but Rockhurst created the separation needed when they led by one, 10-9, and gained a four-point lead on the strength of a 3-0 run. The Hawks were first to 20 points in the set and capped it off with five-straight points.
Statistically, the Golden Suns were led on offense by freshman
Henley Hooks with nine kills. The Benton native would commit just two errors on 18 total attacks to post a .389 attack percentage.
Lauren Grier,
Kaitlyn Neal and
Savannah Meyer would notch five kills each to follow Henley.
Aspen Jankowski led the team in assists with 10.
Defensively,
Jamie Myrick totaled 13 digs and Grier led the blocking efforts with three block assists.
The Golden Suns will now prepare for another road non-conference match on Saturday afternoon. This one will be against William Jewell and will take place at 2 p.m.
