RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. — Mulerider Volleyball (11-17 | 5-9 GAC) traveled up to Pope County for the group's second match with the Golden Suns of Arkansas Tech (15-9 | 11-3 GAC) this season. With the regular season wrapping up, all games matter to earn a spot in the Great American Conference Championship Tournament in Shawnee, Oklahoma. This match proved exactly that as it was nothing short of intense til the very end. With the hope of pushing towards trying to solidify their spot in the tournament, the Muleriders went on to come up just shy of a strong push towards Shawnee as the group fell to the Golden Suns in five sets. 

With the outcomes of other games around the conference, East Central's win boosted the Tigers back to outright seventh-place, moving the Muleriders to the outright eighth-place spot. Southern Arkansas sits just one game ahead of both Southeastern Oklahoma State and Southern Nazarene, but would only have a tiebreaker over SE. 

Leading the Muleriders for scoring in Russellville was once again Brinklee Dauenhauer. The junior accounted for an 18-point evening with just six errors on her 55 attacks for a .218 attack percentage. Having a huge breakout match was freshman right side Nashua Graham. The native of Mesquite, Texas tallied a career-best 16 kills with just five errors on 38 attacks for an attack percentage of .289. The Mulerider with the best hitting percentage for the game was Allie Cooper. The junior from Brownsboro, Texas recorded a 12-kill night with just two errors on only 18 attacks for an attack percentage of .556. 

Cooper also had an impressive night defensively with her four block assists. 

First Set (L, 25-18)

SAU and ATU started out the opening set with a tightly-contested bout, as both teams scored back and forth until the Golden Suns began to stretch their lead with four-straight points, giving Arkansas Tech an 8-5 advantage. The Muleriders were not out of the set yet though, as the group kept countering to the Suns points until a few more stretched of points for ATU, expanding their lead to 20-12. SAU did not count themselves out yet, as the unit kept trying to climb back into the set, but would come up short, with the Suns winning the set off an SAU attack error.

Second Set (L, 25-23)

The following set saw a strong beginning for the Muleriders, as the group ripped off a 7-3 start before slowly surrendering the lead after an Arkansas Tech 9-5 stretch to tie the set at 12-12. ATU would take the lead from SAU and expand it to a five-point lead (21-16), but would then see the Muleriders jump right back into the mix with a 6-1 stretch to tie the set at 22-22. After back-and-forth points from both teams, the Golden Suns went on to finally shutdown the Muleriders' comeback with a pair of kills. 

Third Set (W, 26-24)

Southern Arkansas started back up where they finished in the second set, as the group came out firing and earning a 6-3 lead to begin set three. Much like the start of the second, Arkansas Tech came right back with a 5-0 run to overtake the lead at 8-6. The Muleriders tie the set back up with a 3-1 stretch for the 9-9 game, but would slip the lead back to the Suns with an ATU 4-1 run for the 13-10 score. The two squads stayed neck-and-neck for nearly the entire remainder of the set until the Golden Suns looked to have locked up the sweep with a 24-21 advantage. The Blue and Gold responded to this with a 5-0 stretch, to win the set for SAU and force a fourth set. 

Fourth Set (W, 28-26)

Southern Arkansas saw its second extra points set of the night, and in a row, as the group pulled off an insane sequence of events to force a fifth set. Arkansas Tech looked as if they had gained back control with an early 3-0 lead, but SAU countered with a 3-0 stretch of its own tie the set at 3-3. The two units would go back-and-forth for a while, up until the Golden Suns jumped back out to another three-point lead at 19-16. From then on, Southern Arkansas gained back the lead with a 7-2 stretch, jumping ahead 22-20. The Muleriders looked as they were gonna close out the fourth set in front after going up 24-21, but the Golden Suns got right back into it with three-straight points. Arkansas Tech even went on to back the Muleriders into a corner with the lead of 26-25, needing only one point to win the match. Southern Arkansas usurped the Suns again with a kill by Nashua Graham and an attack error by ATU. 

Fifth Set (L, 15-10)

After Arkansas Tech recorded the initial point in the final set, the Muleriders gained momentum going up 3-1 with a pair of attack errors and a kill by Allie Cooper. After an SAU service error and an ATU kill, the Golden Suns went on tie the set back up at 3-3. Similar to just earlier, the Muleriders went up three (6-3) with two attack errors and a kill by Brinklee Dauenhauer. The Blue and Gold looked to have all the momentum, as the group went up 9-5 after a bad set by the Suns. After surrendering a kill to Tech, SAU went back up four (10-6) with another attack error by ATU. That point ended up being the Muleriders' last, as Arkansas Tech went on to score the next nine points and won the match 3-2. 

Up Next:

Southern Arkansas takes a brief break from Great American Conference play, with the Muleriders preparing to travel to the town that is twice as nice in Texarkana, Texas for the group's road match with the Texas A&M-Texarkana Eagles on Saturday (Nov. 8) at 1:30 PM. 

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