Harding’s Lady Bison volleyball team lost a disappointing 3-2 match against Arkansas Tech last Thursday night before an energetic crowd of over 1,000 at Rhodes Field House.Harding’s record is 21–7 overall and 11–3 in the Great American Conference at second place.
The Arkansas Tech Golden Suns came into the match ranked first in the GAC with an overall record of 30–3 and a conference record of 14–0.They are also ranked eigth in the NCAA Division II South Regional Volleyball rankings.
The opening set saw 10 ties and four lead changes.The Lady Bisons scored 5 unanswered points to put the game away 25–20.
The Golden Suns had an 18–17 lead in the second set.Harding scored the next 7 of 11 points and won the thriller 25–22 and took a 2–0 match lead.
The Lady Bisons made some errors in the third set and Tech stormed to an 11 – 7 lead. Harding came back and tied the set at 13. The back-and-forth set was tied at 17, 18, 19 and 20 before the Golden Suns took the 22–20 lead.
Harding came back and tied the match at 22, but Tech scored the next three points and won the set 25–23.
Arkansas Tech seized the momentum in the fourth set with a 7–0 run and remained in total control of their 25–14 win.
In the tiebreaker fifth set, Harding took an early 5–4 lead. In another back and forth set Harding and Tech were tied at 14.The Golden Suns won the next 2 points winning the deciding set, 16–14.
“We worked really hard and fought hard,”senior Jordan Smith said. “It was an emotional game because we know we can beat them.”
The Lady Bisons had many bright spots in the big game for conference standing.Sophomore outside hitter Mollie Arnold ended the match with 17 kills and 18 digs.Freshman outside hitter Kalyn Helton had 14 kills and sophomore middle blocker Alyssa Short had 10 kills.Harding had an impressive 89 digs in the match led by sophomore defensive specialist Weslynn Williams with 21.The Lady Bisons led at the net with seven blocks.
“We were evenly matched with Arkansas Tech,” senior Alex Smith said.”We lost because we made mistakes.We will play them again.It’s something that we have to take care of in conference play.”
Harding swept (3–0) a non-conference match against Christian Brothers in Memphis and resumed conference play against Southwest Oklahoma State Nov. 3 at the Rhodes Field House.
“We are playing for second place in conference,” Jordan Smith said.”We just need to hold it.We can get it.”
