ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – The Suns left their match against the Ouachita Baptist Tigers making their conference record 4-0. Through four tough sets, they were able to take the match 3-1. Tech now stands second in the conference after Oklahoma Baptist.
The Suns began set one on a hot streak at a 6-0 run with multiple kills by Henley Hooks and Savannah Meyer. Though a service error allowed the Tigers their first point, the Suns were able to increase the score gap steadily through the set. An attack by the Tigers mid-set pushed the score to 12-8, the Suns went on a three-point run to make the score 15-8 after another kill by Meyer and back-to-back kills by BryAnna Young. The Tigers were able to close the score gap up to a four-point range at 21-17 with the Suns still in the lead. The score hit 24-19 after an attack from Juliana Borchers, and a Tiger error gave the Suns their final point to take set one 25-19.
The Tigers took the fire and gained an early lead in set two. They earned a three-point run but a kill by Meyer interrupted their run and the Suns caught up at 6-4 with the Tigers in the lead. Ouachita Baptist was able to create a six-point gap until Tech's three-point run shut the gap to a three-point range. By 15-12, the Tigers scored another point and was answered with another three-point run by the Suns and made the score 16-15. Both teams tied the score at 19-19, the Suns were able to prevail and a couple kills by Hooks, Karlly Dillard and Sammie Smith gave the Suns set two 25-21.
Set three saw the first point by the Suns, but the Tigers continually scored through a couple Sun errors and Tiger attacks. A portion of the Suns' points were through attacks, but many were from Tiger errors. Ouachita Baptist was able to make up to a six-point gap towards the end of the set and the Tigers took set three 25-16.
The energy was brought to set four where the Suns took an early lead but the Tigers met them at 4-4. The Suns jumped ahead after a couple attacks and made the score 12-8, but were offensively tripped and allowed the Tigers to jump in the lead at 15-12. A couple attacks by Erika Hernandez and Sammie Smith tied the teams at 16-16. The score was heavily tossed back-and-forth and the Suns racked up attack points by Meyer and Hooks to help the Suns take the set 25-23 and win the match 3-1.
Henley Hooks led the Golden Suns with 17 kills and was followed by BryAnna Young with nine, and Erika Hernandez tied with Savannah Meyer at eight kills; Meyer hit 1000 career kills by the end of the match. Kenzie Garrett led in assists and earned a double-double with 25 assists and 10 digs. Karis Brinlee led in digs at 21.
