Southern Arkansas (3-6, 0-1 GAC) came up short 3-1 to Harding (6-3, 1-0 GAC) in Great American Conference volleyball action Tuesday night at the W.T. Watson Center. The Lady Bisons, who received votes in the latest AVCA DII Top 25, are the preseason GAC favorites.
In the first set which back-and-forth, Harding jumped out to a 3-1 lead just to then be followed by back-to-back kills from SAU's Landry Rogers and freshman Brinklee Dauenhauer. It wasn't enough as Harding took the first set 25-23.
The Lady Muleriders won the second set by a score of 25-16, jumping ahead by two points and never looking back. Harding made a short surge, but it wasn't enough.
Harding held off the Lady Muleriders in the third set and claimed the fourth one as well to win the match.
Rogers led the Lady Muleriders in kills as she marked down eight of them off of 24 attacks (.208). Lauryn Moultire, Ava Tanner, and Kayte Delong all recorded six kills with Moultrie leading the team in total points with ten on the night.
Moultire, native of Fairburn, Georgia, led the squad in total blocks with three. Morgan Schuster once again led her team in assists with 16 on the night and now 2,942 in her career. Mary Insalaco made her name to the crowd at the W.T. Watson Center known as she led Southern Arkansas in digs with twenty.
Coach Alli O'Banion and her Lady Muleriders look now towards the weekend where they will compete in the Auburn Montgomery Tournament in Montgomery, Alabama hosted by Auburn Univeristy-Montgomery. Southern Arkansas is set to compete against Albany State on Friday at 11:30 a.m. and then Miles College that evening at 4:30 p.m. On Saturday, SAU will take on Edward Waters (Fla.) at 12:30 p.m. and the host Auburn-Montgomery at 3 p.m.