ARKADELPHIA, Ark. - In a raucous road environment at the Sturgis Physical Education Center, Henderson State gave Ouachita Baptist all it could handle on its home floor Thursday evening, pushing the Lady Tigers to a fifth set before ultimately falling 3-2 (25-17, 26-28, 25-20, 21-25, 13-15) in a nail biter.

SET ONE: The Reddies started well in hostile territory, sprinting out to an 8-4 lead and forcing a Ouachita Baptist timeout. The stoppage did little to thwart Henderson's momentum, as they answered with a huge 7-1 run to seize a commanding 15-5 lead and force a second Lady Tiger timeout. OBU was able to regain some composure and traded points with the Reddies the rest of the way, but it was not nearly enough, as HSU's hot start carried it to a 25-17 win and a 1-0 match lead. Courtney Bolf had a big hand in the great start, tallying six kills in the set on a .364 hitting percentage.

SET TWO: Riding its momentum from a set one win, Henderson got lead early in the second, jumping out to a 10-7 advantage. The Lady Tigers responded, winning the next five points to grab its first lead of the match, 12-10, forcing a Reddies' timeout. HSU came out of the stoppage refocused and used a kill and block from Zuzana Ondruskova to go on a 4-1 run and regain the lead, 14-13. Ouachita Baptist again came back, this time with a 7-3 spurt, to retake the lead 20-17. Henderson got back-to-back kills from Bolf and Violet Williams to cut the deficit down to 20-19, before eventually knotting things up at 22-22. With both teams needing three to win, they traded the next eight points to bring the score to 26-26, but OBU got a kill from Adrianna Nolly and a block from Kori Bullard to take it 28-26 and tie the match 1-1. Bolf had seven more kills in the set for HSU.

SET THREE: After tying the match in the second set, OBU got off to a good start in the third, winning the first four points of the set to take a 4-0 lead. Not phased by the early hole, the Reddies answered, taking the next five to grab the lead, 5-4. The two teams traded points from there as the score stayed within a point for most of the set. Up 20-19, the Reddies got a huge one handed dig from Delaney Price which helped save a rally that HSU eventually won, and then were gifted a point on an OBU setting error to take a 22-19 advantage. After a Lady Tiger timeout, Sariah Boney nailed a service ace and then came up with a huge dig that Williams killed to put HSU at set-point, 24-19. Ouachita got one point back, but another kill from Williams put it away for the Reddies as they took it 25-20 and went up 2-1 in the match.

SET FOUR: With its back against the wall, OBU started hot in the fourth set and grabbed an early 6-3 lead. The Lady Tigers kept the lead over the next several points, but trailing 11-9, the Reddies mounted a run, using two kills from Ondruskova to take the next four points, seize a 13-11 advantage and force an OBU timeout. The Lady Tigers won the next two to knot things back up at 13-13 and from there the teams traded the next 10 points. With the score 18-18, OBU got an HSU error and a kill to take a 20-18 lead. Bolf gave Henderson the next point, but back-to-back kills from Bullard stretched the Lady Tigers lead out to 22-19, putting them on the verge of tying the match. Henderson tried to rally, but OBU was too much, as the Lady Tigers tied the match by taking the set, 25-21.

SET FIVE: The Lady Tigers, with their home crowd behind them, jumped out to a quick 3-1 lead in the deciding fifth set and then extended it to 8-3 on a kill, an ace, a block and an HSU attack error as the teams switched sides. Trailing 12-6 after the switch, Henderson tried to claw back, using a smartly played ball to the corner from Sydney Skelton and a block from Karlie Greene to close the gap to 12-8. The Lady Tigers pushed the lead out to 13-8 and then grabbed match-point at 14-9, but the Reddies would not go away, as Bolf, Abby Blackburn and Kamra Jackson came through with kills, and Blackburn added a service ace, to cut the lead to 14-13. Henderson's valiant comeback effort fell just short, though, as Nolly got the match-winning kill for the Lady Tigers on the next point, helping OBU take the set 15-13 and the match 3-2.

GAME NOTES: The Reddies got double-digit kills from four different players as Bolf (22), Williams (14), Ondruskova (11) and Hartmann (10) each tallied 10 or more. Bolf turned in a huge performance for HSU in defeat, finishing with 24 digs as well to notch a big double-double. Skelton led the Reddies defensively with 33 digs while Blackburn had 11. Hartmann led Henderson in blocks with five and Boney had a team-high 40 assists to go along with 25 from Blackburn, who notched the first double-double of her career. Henderson won almost every major statistical category in the match as a team, including points (87-77), kills (73-65) and digs (101-90), as well as posting a .216 attacking percentage while holding OBU to a .209 attack percentage. The loss drops HSU to 9-9 on the season and 2-3 in Great American Conference play.

UP NEXT: The Reddies play next on Oct. 3 at 6 p.m. against Jarvis Christian at home in an exhibition affair. Henderson returns to GAC action on Oct. 6 at 5 p.m. against Southern Nazarene in Bethany, Oklahoma.