ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — Henderson State dominated the first two sets of its match with Arkansas-Monticello on Tuesday night and then withstood a Blossom rally to win, 3-1 (25-16, 25-10, 19-25, 25-18) on Senior Night in the Duke Wells Center.
SET ONE: Leading 12-10 in the first set, Henderson used kills from four different players to go on a 9-3 run and put a 21-13 gap between it and UAM. The Blossoms tried to creep back into it, but an ace from
Abby Blackburn and a kill from
Maddy Wisniewski gave the Reddies the final two points and a 25-16 win. HSU had an attacking percentage of .258 in the set as
Courtney Bolf and
Karlie Greene finished with four kills apiece.
SET TWO: The teams traded the first eight points of the second set, but with the score tied 4-4, Henderson went on a massive 19-5 run to seize a 23-9 lead. UAM wasn't able to rally as the Reddies closed it out, 25-10, to go up 2-0 in the match.
Zuzana Ondruskova finished the set with five kills and an attacking percentage of .714 to lead HSU, who hit .355 as a team in the period.
SET THREE: In what proved to be a tight set, UAM found a way to respond after falling behind 0-2. With the score knotted at 18-18, the Blossoms closed the period on a 7-1 run to win it, 25-19, and trim the Reddies advantage in the match down to 2-1. Henderson hit just .091 in the third set, while UAM hit .122, its best attacking percentage of any set on the night.
SET FOUR: The Reddies got back to business in the fourth and raced out to a 10-4 advantage early. UAM crawled back into the set with a gradual 9-6 run to trim the lead to 16-13, but it would come no closer, as HSU finished with a 9-5 spurt and capped off the set with a kill from Ondruskova to win it, 25-18, and take the match, 3-1. Bolf, Ondruskova and
Violet Williams had four kills each in the final frame to lead Henderson.
GAME NOTES: Ondruskova led the Reddies with 14 kills, while Bolf recorded another double-double with 13 kills and 15 assists.
Sariah Boney also had a double-double for HSU with 29 assists and 14 digs. Seniors
Sydney Skelton and Williams each had strong performances in their final homes games, as Skelton finished with a match-high 32 digs and Williams notched 10 kills. Greene led HSU with five blocks on the night, while
Adrianna Hartmann added four. Henderson finished with an attacking percentage of .224, while UAM hit just .047 for the match against the Reddies' defense. HSU had 52 kills to the Blossoms' 39 on the night and had 16 blocks to UAM's two. The win moves Henderson to 13-15 on the year and 6-9 in Great American Conference action.
UP NEXT: Henderson will play its final regular season game of 2017 on Thursday night in Magnolia, Arkansas, against Southern Arkansas at 6 p.m.
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