ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — Reddies volleyball begins its quest for a Great American Conference Tournament Championship on Thursday when they face the No. 5 seed Southern Nazarene Crimson Storm at Bank OZK Arena in Hot Springs at 7:30 p.m. in the league quarterfinals.

Henderson State (21-11, 11-5) finished the regular season on a six-match winning streak and has won 13 of its last 15 matches. The Reddies have not lost in the state of Arkansas since Oct. 3. HSU's 21 victories gave the program back-to-back 20 win seasons for the first time since 2000-2001. 

Third year coach Phil McDaniel has now led the Reddies to 24 regular season conference wins and 26 total league victories in the last two seasons. Henderson State had won just 12 GAC matches ever before the arrival of McDaniel.

Just as they did in the regular season, the Reddies will lean on excellent team defense to keep the opponents off balance. Henderson State was the only GAC team to finish top three in the conference in opponent hitting percentage, total blocks and digs. Furthermore, the Reddies were the only team in the GAC to have two different players take home Defensive Player of the Week honors. MaKenzie Thoman took home the award twice and Courtney Bolf was honored in the last week of the regular season.

Henderson defeated its first round opponent Southern Nazarene on Oct. 12 in a thrilling 3-2 match (24-26, 26-24, 19-25, 25-21, 19-17). The Reddies were led by an outstanding effort from Adrianna Hartmann, who finished with 16 kills on a 46.4% attacking percentage and six total blocks. HSU dominated the net against SNU and had 26 blocks to the Crimson Storm's 12. 

The Reddies defeated Oklahoma Baptist and Southwestern Oklahoma State to reach the GAC Tournament Championship last season before being defeated by the No. 1 seed Harding. The wins were the first GAC Tournament victories in program history.

Southern Nazarene | (21-10, 10-6) | 4th in GAC
Henderson's stout defense will be put to the test on Thursday against a Southern Nazarene offense that led the league in kills. The Crimson Storm also tout the GAC's individual leader in kills, Bailey Turang. Turang, a senior, led the conference with 250 kills, many of them dished out from fellow upperclassman Kylie Smith, who led the conference in assists by a wide margin. The Crimson Storm come into postseason play having split their last four matches. SNU is looking to catch fire just as it did in 2016, when the Crimson Storm won the GAC Tournament Championship without dropping a single set to their three opponents. 

HSU Statistical Leaders:
Senior, Courtney Bolf – 406 Kills
Junior, Abby Blackburn – 714 Assists
Sophomore, MaKenzie Thoman – 623 Digs
Senior, Adrianna Hartmann – 139 Blocks

SNU Statistical Leaders:
Senior, Bailee Turang – 454 Kills
Senior, Kylie Smith – 1350 Assists
Sophomore, Logan Matthews – 449 Digs
Sophomore, Bailey Grimes – 95 Blocks

Henderson State Milestone Watch
- Adrianna Hartmann needs two blocks to pass Rosa Montejano for second in program history. She also needs just two solo blocks to reach 100 in her career.

- Courtney Bolf is looking for 18 kills, which would give her 1500 for her career.

- Abby Blackburn needs 11 assists to pass Rachel Lee for eighth all-time at HSU.