SEARCY, Ark. – The Harding volleyball team captured their first Great American Conference Tournament Title on Saturday as they defeated Arkansas Tech 3-1. It was their first conference tournament championship since 2003 when Harding won the Gulf South Conference Tournament.

Next season, the Great American Conference will have an automatic bid to the NCAA postseason tournament. The GAC has provisional status with the NCAA and will will become a full standing member at the end of this academic year. Harding ended their season with a 28-6 record.

It was Harding's 14^th straight win and the Lady Bisons finished perfect at home with a 13-0 record. The last time HU has gone undefeated at home in a season was in 2004 as HU went 11-0.

Junior outside hitter Mollie Arnold led HU with 21 kills and received the Tournament Most Valuable Player award. Arnold was also named to the All-Tournament Team.

Junior defensive specialist Lisa Copeland led the HU defense with 24 digs. It was the second straight match in which Copeland had over 20 digs. She had 27 against Southwestern Oklahoma State in the semifinals of the tournament on Friday.

Senior setter Amber Schinzing captured a double-double with 34 assists and 14 digs.

After falling behind in the match 1-0, the Lady Bisons battled back to tie the match at one with a 26-24 set two win. Arkansas Tech led 18-14 in the before HU went on a 6-2 run to take a 21-20 lead. The Golden Suns took a 23-20 lead on a service ace by Kaitlyn White. Harding took four of the next five points to win the set. HU didn't have any hitting errors in the set and hit .484.

The third set was all Harding. The Lady Bisons jumped out to a 17-5 lead before Arkansas Tech went on a 5-3 run to cut the lead to 10. Harding put the set away on two straight kills by senior right-side hitter Bailee Graham.

Arkansas Tech stayed close in the opening points of the fourth set until the Lady Bisons forced four hitting errors during an 8-0 run which gave HU a 16-6 lead. The Golden Suns didn't get any closer than eight the rest of the way. A kill by senior Bailee Graham gave Harding the victory.

Harding forced Arkansas Tech to 23 attack errors and 12 service errors. The Golden Suns had six attack errors in the third set and eight in the fourth set.

Harding had nine service aces in the match. It broke Harding's previous record in the GAC Tournament of five aces set in the first round on Thursday against Southeastern Oklahoma State.

Arkansas Tech (27-10) was led by Kaitlyn White who had 17 kills. Morgan McKellar led the ATU defense with 25 digs.

Harding had two other players named to the GAC All-Tournament Team – Amber Schinzing and Bailee Graham.

It was the third time this season Harding has beaten Arkansas Tech.