Tweet #theGAC  HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Harding became the first school to win a Great American Conference Volleyball Championship contest after dropping the first two sets as the Lady Bisons defeated second-seeded Northwestern Oklahoma State, 3-2, in Friday’s opening semifinal from Bank OZK Arena.
 
Entering this match, teams winning the first two sets of a GAC Championship contest owned 31-0 record. In only four of those instances had the trailing team even forced a fifth set.
 
Harding (21-10) bucked that trend by producing two dominating set victories - 25-13 in the third and 25-16 in the fourth. The Lady Bisons hit a combined .316 in those two sets with only nine errors. In the first two sets, they committed 22 errors and hit .070. The third set featured scoring runs of 10-1 and 10-2 for Harding. In the fourth set, Harding never relinquished the lead.
 
In the decisive fifth set, Northwestern (23-11) scored four straight points and held an 8-6 advantage at the exchange point. Harding answered with four consecutive points. The Rangers ended that run to close to within 10-9 only to have Harding score five of the contest’s final six points.
 
Libby Hinton led Harding with 23 kills. She hit .291. Kelli McKinnon added 20 kills and produced a .341 attack percentage. Logan Smith registered a double-double - 16 kills and 28 digs – and Sarah Morehead totaled 63 assists.
 
The Rangers’ All-GAC First-Team duo of Kiauna Clark and Jennifer Eubanks combined for 29 kills and a .308 attack percentage.
 
One day after eliminating No. 3 Southwestern Oklahoma State, Harding’s win against the second-seeded Rangers made the Lady Bisons the first No. 6 seed to reach the final and the second team to upset two higher teams in a single tournament.
 
Harding will take on Oklahoma Baptist or Southern Nazarene at 2:00 pm in Saturday’s title match. The Lady Bisons dropped their matches to the Bison and Crimson Storm on consecutive days, 3-0 to Oklahoma Baptist on October 25 and 3-1 to Southern Nazarene on the 26^th. The Lady Bisons will attempt to join Arkansas Tech as the only GAC school to repeat as champion. The Golden Suns claimed consecutive titles in 2013 and 2014.