2011 GAC VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP HOME PAGE
RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – It was only fitting the inaugural Great American Conference Volleyball Tournament Championship was decided in five sets. Arkansas Tech defeated Harding 3-2 on Saturday evening at Tucker Coliseum to capture the tournament title to go along with the program’s regular season championship.
It was ATU’s third five-set win over Harding this season. Final game scores were 20-25, 25-17, 25-16, 25-27 and 15-11.
The Golden Suns (35-3) now await a decision from the NCAA to find out if they have done enough to earn an at-large bid for the NCAA South Central Regional. The NCAA will announce the playoff participants on a selection show at NCAA.com on Sunday, November 13 at 9 p.m. central time. ATU was ranked No. 7 in the most recent regional rankings. The top eight from each region qualify for regionals. The Great American Conference does not receive an automatic qualifier for its conference champion due its first-year status as an NCAA Division II member conference.
In the win over Harding (25-8), the Golden Suns hit .262 as a team with 76 kills on 191 attempts with 26 errors. The Lady Bisons hit .135 with 48 kills and 23 errors on 185 attempts.
ATU’s Laura Farney led the way individually and tied Harding’s Mollie Arnold for the match-high of 20 kills. Three other ATU players reached double-digits in kills. Kelly O’Malley had 17, Sara Motsinger had 14 and Thabata Galvao had 11. Arnold was Harding’s only double-digit finisher in the kills column.
After Harding took the first set by five points, ATU responded with its best set of the tournament, collecting 20 kills on 35 attempts with only four errors for a .457 percentage in the second set. Harding stayed below the .100 mark in percentage for the remainder of the match, allowing ATU to win the third game comfortably by nine points.
Both teams struggled to collect points offensively in the fourth set, with HU needing extra points to force a fifth and decisive set. The Lady Bisons hit .044 in that set, while the Golden Suns hit .100.
ATU had less attempts in the final set than Harding, but the Golden Suns took advantage of them, only committing two errors on 28 attempts, while racking up 11 kills to earn the victory. The Lady Bisons were limited to six kills on 34 attempts in the final set.
2011 GREAT AMERICAN CONFERENCE VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Brennae Benda, Senior, Libero, Arkansas Tech (Most Valuable Player)
Laura Farney, Senior, Outside Hitter, Arkansas Tech
Thabata Galvao, Senior, Outside Hitter, Arkansas Tech
Mollie Arnold, Sophomore, Outside Hitter, Harding
Alyssa Short, Sophomore, Middle Blocker, Harding
Jordan White, Senior, Outside Hitter, Southern Arkansas
Noelle Cope, Sophomore, Outside Hitter, East Central