RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech volleyball team gave league-leading Harding everything they wanted and more on Thursday night inside Tucker Coliseum. Unfortunately, the Bisons were able to leave Tucker with a 3-1 win over Tech.
Harding came into the match against Tech in first place in the GAC standings as the lone unbeaten team in conference play at 4-0. Their first loss in GAC action was very much in play throughout the entirety of the night.
The Bisons were able to get out to an early advantage by winning the first set 25-22. Before getting the opening set win, Tech made a late surge and turned a two-point deficit, 14-12, into a three-point lead, 18-15. During that sequence, the Golden Suns for kills from
Kaitlyn Neal and Laure Grier while also benefitting from a pair of attack errors and a bat set by Harding.
Harding would respond to that with a run of their own and turned that three-point deficit into a two-point lead, 21-19. A Harding service error ended the run and brought Tech within a point, 21-20, but Harding would benefit from a pair of Tech errors to give them a three-point lead, 23-20. That proved to be enough of a gap in the opening set as Harding closed it out 25-22.
Set two saw Harding jump out to an early lead and had a lead as large as seven points, 11-4. The calling card of the 2023 Golden Suns, resiliency, showed through once more as the Golden Suns went on a furious run that saw them score 11 of the next 12 points to suddenly give them a three-point lead, 15-12.
During that massive surge, the Golden Suns had kills from Neal,
Savannah Meyer and
Madi Hartman as well as an assisted block by Grier and Meyer and four attack errors by Harding. The Bison would score two-consecutive points to pull within one, but the Golden Suns created more separation with four-straight points to go up by five, 19-14.
With the score 22-16 in favor of Tech, Harding scored four-straight to pull within two of the lead. Consecutive kills from Meyer and Neal pushed the lead back out to four and put Tech on the cusp of a set victory. Harding would make things interesting and pulled the score to 24-23, but a clutch kill from
Henley Hooks put the final touches on the set.
The third set was relatively close early on, but Harding seized control and eventually got to set point with a seven-point. While that set could have been all but academic for the Golden Suns with that kind of a deficit and facing set point, but their resilience just wouldn't let that happen.
Sparked by a kill by Meyer on ensuing service, the Golden Suns would score eight-straight points to not only stave off Harding's set point, but gain it themselves at 25-24. The Bisons then were able to stop their free fall and scored three-straight points to close out the set, 27-25.
Set four was back and forth throughout and tied as late as 14-all. At that point, however, Harding had a three-point run that put them in control of the set. The Golden Suns were able to get within a point not long after that at 17-16 but Harding was able to maintain the gap and eventually won the set, 25-21 and with it the match, 3-1.
Statistically,
Savannah Meyer led the team in kills with a season-high 16. She also added two block assists and three digs.
Kaitlyn Neal was next in kills with 10.
Kenzie Garrett and
Gracie Palmer split time at setter and combined for 37 of the team's 41 assists.
Jamie Myrick and
Madi Hartman both reached double-digits in digs with Myrick's 16 leading the way followed by Hartman's 11.
The Golden Suns will now prepare for their next match which will be the following Friday night against Southern Nazarene. First-serve is scheduled for 6 p.m. from Tucker Coliseum.
