Harding University Athletics

Box Score - East Stroudsburg
Box Score - Northwest Nazarene

DENTON, Texas – Big hitting and great defense led the Harding volleyball team past East Stroudsburg and Northwest Nazarene on Friday in the Holiday Inn Express and Suites Classic in Denton, Texas. Harding won both matches 3-0. The Lady Bisons start the season 2-0 for the first time since 2007.

Making her Harding debut, Arnold captured a double- double with 11 kills and 10 digs as the Lady Bisons swept East Stroudsburg (Pa.) 3-0 (25-14, 25-16, 25-19) in the first match of the day. Harding moves to 9-2 in season openers.

Sophomore outside hitter Reagan Smith had 10 kills and two blocks. Senior defensive specialist Emily Tate had 20 digs in the match. It was the 18^th time in her career she has had 20 or more digs in a match. Also making her Harding debut was redshirt freshman Weslynn Williams. She had 11 digs for the Lady Bisons.

The Lady Bisons had seven service aces while the warriors only had one. East Stroudsburg had 10 service errors in the match.

The Lady Bisons defense held the Warriors to a .074 hitting percentage. East Stroudsburg had 21 kills on 95 attempts with 14 errors.

In the second match, the Harding defense led the way with 70 digs as they went on to sweep Northwest Nazarene, 3-0 (25-18, 25-13, 25-19). Three players had double-figure digs. Leading the way was Tate who picked up 18. Arnold added 15 while Williams added 10. It was a career high for both players. Nine of the 11 players that played in the match had one or more digs.

The Harding defense held Northwest Nazarene to hitting .092.

Smith added the offense for Harding with a career high 17 kills. She hit for over .300 for the 10^th time in her career with a .371 percentage on 35 attempts.

The Lady Bisons will finish up the tournament on Saturday as they take on Texas A&M-International at 12:30 p.m. and then close out the tournament by facing the host team, Texas Women’s at 5:30 p.m.