HAYS, Kan. – The Arkansas Tech volleyball team opened their 2025 season at the Tiger Invitational with a pair of matches against MIAA foes and dropped, losing to Northwest Missouri 3-0 and host Fort Hays State 3-1.
NORTHWEST MISSOURI
In the Northwest Missouri match, the Bearcats jumped out to an early lead and were able to control the rest of the opening set. Tech would struggle offensively in the set and posted a negative hitting percentage.
The offense would turn things around in set two as they totaled 16 kills against just three errors for an attack percentage of .310. Unfortunately, the Northwest Missouri offense was just as efficient and a touch more as they had 18 kills against two errors. That helped the Bearcats come away with a 25-20 win on the set.
Northwest carried that momentum into the third set and quickly jumped out to a 7-1 lead, but the Golden Suns fought back and got within three points of the lead, 13-10. The Bearcats were the first to 20 points and held a six-point advantage at that point in the set. Not long after, Northwest Missouri was up 23-18, but the Golden Suns rallied and scored four of the next five points in the set to pull within a couple of points, 24-22.
The Bearcats were able to stop the surge there and got the final point of the set and match.
Five Golden Suns recorded five or more kills.
Savannah Meyer led the team in kills with nine and was followed by
Millie Allgood with eight.
Henley Hooks and
Erika Hernandez each had seven kills while
Carson Thiebaud had five.
Setting was split between
Kenzie Garrett and Emma Kizer. Kizer would lead with 18 assists while Garret was one off that with 17.
Samantha Wojtowicz handled libero duties and paced the team with 17 digs. Allgood and Hooks also had double-digit digs with 12 and 10, respectively.
FORT HAYS STATE
Playing in front of the home crowd of host Fort Hays State, the Golden Suns got out to a great start in the match and were highly-efficient in the set offensively, totally 16 kills against two errors on 32 attacks for a percentage of .438. In that first set, the Golden Suns would not trail, and Fort Hays managed to tie the score just once, early in the set, at 3-all.
The second set also saw the Golden Suns get out to an early lead and sustain it throughout most of play, but they were unable to put the Tigers away. The turning point of the set came with Tech up 15-12 as Fort Hays would score six of the next eight points to take an 18-17 lead. That was their first lead of the set to that point.
Tech was able to stop that surge by Fort Hays and got to set-point with a three-point lead in hand, but were not able to close out the set. The Tigers would score three-straight points to tie the set at 24-all and eventually won 28-26.
The momentum gained from that resilient set win for Fort Hays carried over the rest of the match as the Tigers captured the final two sets to win 3-1.
Savannah Meyer was again the leading hitter for the Golden Suns with 14 kills.
Henley Hooks was next with 11 followed by nine by
Erika Hernandez.
Aspen Jankowski and Emma Kizer split setting duties in the match and Jankowski led with 24.
Samantha Wojtowicz was once more the libero and had 18 digs to lead the team.
UP NEXT
The Golden Suns will have a quick turnaround and are set to play two more matches on Saturday to conclude play at the Tiger Invitational. Their first match will be against Rockhurst at 11:30 a.m. and their second will be at 3:30 p.m. against Cameron.
