DENTON, Texas – The Arkansas Tech volleyball team concluded their weekend at the Denton Volleyfest on Saturday with a pair of matches. Tech would split the matches, falling to host Texas Woman's 3-0 in their first match and then bouncing back to sweep UT Tyler, 3-0, in their afternoon match.
The Golden Suns are now 3-4 overall through two weekends of play and will now prepare for their Great American Conference-opener on the road at Henderson State on Tuesday, September 16.
TEXAS WOMAN'S
In their match with host Texas Woman's, the Golden Suns held tight with the Pioneers early in the first set, but a sizable scoring run that saw TWU score nine out of 12 points took a nine-all tie into an 18-12 lead for the Pioneers. Later in the set, TWU led 22-14, but the Golden Suns rallied to score eight of the next 10 points to pull within a pair of points, 24-22. TWU would close out the set on the next rally.
The Pioneers then caught fire in the second set and raced out to a 21-8 lead before closing out the set, 25-12. The third and final set played out similarly to set two and TWU completed the sweep.
Savannah Meyer led the team in kills with 11 and was the only Golden Sun with double-digit kills. All three setters saw time in the match.
Aspen Jankowski led with 12 assists,
Kenzie Garrett was next with 10 and Emma Kizer had eight.
Samantha Wojtowicz led in digs with 12.
UT TYLER
The Golden Suns' offense was off and running early in the match against UT Tyler as they ended up with 19 kills in the set. That high-kill total was pivotal in the Golden Suns holding on for a 25-23 set win because UT Tyler only committed one attack error in that set.
Tech would have a pair of runs in the set that helped carry them to the win. The first was a 5-0 run that broke a five-all tie and the second was a 6-1 run that ended with the Golden Suns leading 17-9. The Patriots would mount a serious comeback and pulled within a point, 24-23, but that was where the lone attack error came by UTT, giving the Golden Suns the set win 25-23.
The Patriots were not nearly as efficient the remainder of the match and totaled 17 attack errors across sets two and three. Conversely, the Golden Suns sustained their efficient attack in the second set to the tune of a .333 attack percentage and then were able to overcome 10 errors in the third set to complete the sweep.
The Golden Suns were led offensively by
Henley Hooks with 12 kills.
Millie Allgood was next with 10 kills.
Savannah Meyer and
Erika Hernandez were one back with nine kills apiece.
Aspen Jankowski and
Emma Kiser split time at setter and each had 18 assists. Allgood and Meyer also added 10 digs as
Samantha Wojtowicz led the team in digs with 15.
