BOX SCORE
MONTICELLO – The University of Arkansas at Monticello volleyball team opened Great American Conference play with a 3-1 loss to defending conference champion Arkansas Tech at home on Tuesday.
Final game scores were 23-25, 28-26, 22-25 and 22-25. With the loss, UAM drops to 1-8 overall and 0-1 in GAC games, while ATU improves to 7-3 overall and 1-0 in the GAC.
After jumping out to a quick 10-3 lead in the first set, the Golden Suns responded with a two-point win. The second set needed extra points to decide, with UAM coming out with the edge on a Tusalava Kill game-winner following an attack error by ATU’s Kaci Jackson. The final two sets went back-and-forth with ATU’s .232 hitting percentage being the determining factor.
“I am proud of the team, as proud as you can be after a loss,” said UAM Head Coach Peter Cruz. “That was a real battle… I think we have gotten a lot closer to where we need to be in conference. We sized up pretty well tonight against the top team in our league, so I am looking forward to the rest of our conference schedule.”
Cruz visited with uamsports.com following Tuesday’s loss to ATU. The full interview can be viewed at the following link:
http://youtu.be/Avh9MU2IN_U. That video is also available at uamsports.com.
UAM posted a .138 hitting percentage with 46 kills on 152 attempts with 25 errors, while ATU posted a .232 percentage with 57 kills on 155 attempts with 21 errors.
Individually, senior Amy Kleypas posted her fifth double-double of the season with 14 kills and 11 digs. She also recorded three block solos in the loss. Junior Victoria Bozzo also reached double digits offensively with 12 kills on 26 swings with four errors for a tteam-high .308 hitting percentage.
Senior Allison Beardsley paced the UAM defense with 17 digs to mark her seventh match of the season with at least 10 digs. Juniors Amy Bazemore and Jaclyn Trinque aided the UAM offense with 20 and 12 assists, respectively.
ATU’s Sara Motsinger led all players with 18 kills and three block solos.
UAM returns to action this Friday at home in a tri-match with Union University and Mississippi Valley State UAM plays Union at 6 p.m. and MVSU at 8 p.m.
