MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech volleyball team dropped a Great American Conference match on the road at Southern Arkansas on Thursday night, 3-1.
The match got off to a good start for the Golden Suns as they captured the first set, 25-21. Action throughout that opening set was closely-contested. With the score knotted at 21-all, however, the Golden Suns ripped off four-straight points to emphatically close out the set.
Set two saw SAU bounce back and jump out to a big lead early and led by as many as seven points at the 16-9 mark. The Golden Suns managed to trim the deficit down to three points with four-consecutive points, but not long after, the Muleriders were able to push their lead back out to seven at 21-14. That provided SAU enough of a cushion to eventually win the set, 25-17.
In the third set, the Golden Suns gained control early, but SAU tied things up at 12-all. After the two teams traded the next four points, the score was still tied, this time at 14-all. The Golden Suns would regain control of the set from there with a 5-0 run to go up 19-14.
Later in the set, the Golden Suns were on the cusp of closing things out at 24-19, but a 5-0 run by SAU staved off defeat in the set and tied things up at 24-all. The Golden Suns were able to break the run and had set-point again at 25-24, but the Muleriders scored three-straight points to steal the set from Tech.
The momentum from that third set appeared to carry over in the fourth set as SAU raced out to an 11-3 lead, but the Golden Suns displayed fight and ripped off a 7-0 run to pull within a point 11-10. That would be as close as the Golden Suns would be able to get as the Muleriders scored seven of the next eight points to go up 18-11. That last run was enough of a lead for SAU to ride out the remainder of the set and complete the match win.
Statistically, the Golden Suns totaled more kills than SAU (58-49), but attack errors mounted and proved to be the undoing. Of those 58 total kills, sophomores
Henley Hooks and
Savannah Meyer combined for 37 as Hooks had 19 and Meyer 18.
Hooks is now just four kills shy of reaching 300 on the year, which would give the Golden Suns a pair of hitters with 300 or more kills for the first time since 2017 when they had four.
The Golden Suns will now prepare for a tough final road match this coming Tuesday at Harding. First-serve is scheduled for 6 p.m.
