With the momentum of back-to-back wins, the Henderson State Volleyball team hosted Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Great American Conference action on Friday night at the Duke Wells Center, but the Storm (5-8, 2-1 GAC) were too much and bested HSU 3-0 (25-21, 25-22, 25-16).
Early on in the opening set the Lady Reddies (4-11, 0-3 GAC) looked sharp racing out to a 10-5 lead. Through those first 10 points for HSU, the Lady Reddies did not commit a single attacking error while they recorded six kills and a service ace to go along with three Storm attacking errors. The Storm would climb their way back into the match, and eventually tied the set up at 14-all. The first set would be tied up once more at 19-all following consecutive service aces from SOSU's Calen Bratcher before the Storm would take the set 25-21.
The second set was a back and forth affair throughout most of the match with seven tied scores and the largest lead for either team being four points. Consecutive Lady Reddie attack errors with the second set tied 22-all put the Storm at set-point and in position to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the match. Tiara Iwegbu collected the final kill on the ensuing serve to give SOSU the second set win.
In the third set, the Storm used a game-high 18 team kills to power themselves to a 25-16 third set win, and in the process they secured a 3-0 sweep of the Lady Reddies for the match victory.
Junior outside hitter Candance Redwine had one of her best hitting performances of the season as she recorded a team-high 12 kills on 24 total attacks with only a pair of errors for a hitting percentage of .417.Redwine also contributed defensively with two assisted blocks.
Setters Paulina Cross and Brooke Walford each dished out 12 assists. Ty Lindberg led the team with 17 digs followed by Lauren Ray who recorded 13 defensive digs. Ray also led the team with two service aces.
The Lady Reddies are back in action on Tuesday, September 27th for the first of two matches against in-town rival Ouachita Baptist University. Tuesday night's match, which will be the first athletic event between the two rival schools of the year, will serve as “Pack the Place” at the Duke Wells Center. The match is set to start at 7:00 p.m.
