SHAWNEE – Fifth seed Oklahoma Baptist (19-9) and fourth seed Arkansas Tech (15-11) will square off in the GAC Tournament on Nov. 20 at 5:30 p.m. inside FireLake Arena.
For OBU students, there are free tickets for the first 50 students, courtesy of OBU Campus Life and the athletics department.
This is the third all-time matchup in the GAC Tournament between the two schools. The last time OBU and ATU played was for the fall 2021 championship when the Golden Suns won in five.
Earlier this season on Oct. 11, Arkansas Tech won in three sets in which the Golden Suns edged the Bison in the first pair of sets, 26-24 and 30-28, before winning 25-13 in the third. The Bison hit .152, their second-lowest mark of the year and were held to 35 kills, the lowest total of the season.
Here are notes on both teams.
Bison Notes
- OBU is well-balanced this fall, ranking second in the GAC in aces (1.96), blocks (2.37), hitting percentage (.226) and total service aces (194).
- The team's 194 aces are the second-most in the D2 era. The most ever attained was 218 in the 2016 campaign.
- Junior setter Emily Boyer broke the previous school record for aces in a season. She's got 50, besting a total of 46 set by Sierra VeraCruz in 2016.
- Boyer also has 637 assists the season and 2,199 for her career. That career mark is fourth-best in school history.
- Rylee Unruh was very productive during the regular season. She was second in aces per set (0.47), third in kills (3.17) and third in points (3.88).
- On the defensive front, Mackenzie Frazee's 1.12 blocks-per-set average is third in the league while Karsyn Hunter's 461 digs checks in a fifth.
Golden Suns Notes
- ATU has split its last six matches after closing the regular season with a hard-fought, five-set defeat versus Harding.
- The Golden Suns lead the GAC with a 12.27 assists-per-set mark. They are also second in kills (13.38).
- Erika Hernandez was the conference leader during the regular season with a .377 attack mark. That was also No. 21 in the nation.
- Henley Hooks checks in at fourth in the GAC in kills per set (3.10) while Savannah Meyer followed two spots later (3.01).
- ATU's only other top-five individual mark was Samantha Wojtowicz's 4.93 digs-per-set average.
The winner of this match will move on to play the winner of the Ouachita (1) versus Southern Arkansas (8) contest on Friday, Nov. 21 at 5 p.m.
