ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – For the first time in GAC history, the Henderson State women's volleyball team defeated the Southwestern Oklahoma State Bulldogs in a regular season match. The only other time the Reddies have beaten SWOSU came in the postseason GAC Tournament back in 2018.
 
Despite it being fall break for Henderson State, the student section inside the Duke Wells Center was rocking as HSU claimed its biggest win of the season in four sets, 25-23, 26-24, 22-25, 25-20.
 
Violeta Mendoza Quintana and Mya Robinson each saw double-doubles in the victory, putting up 14-kill, 15-dig and 13-kill, 13-dig performances, respectively. Robinson also hit .220 in the victory, second only to Kaitlyn Sykes who hit .500 with six kills and five total blocks.
 
Madison Hatt, who got her first start of the season tonight, led the team with a season-high 25 set assists. Makenzie Thoman moved into sole possession of seventh place on the all-time digs list after accumulating 30 tonight. The junior libero now only needs 10 more to move into sixth.
 
SET ONE
What started out all SWOSU turned into a house party for the home Reddies quickly. After the Bulldogs claimed four of the first five points, HSU got it within two at 7-5 before exploding for seven unanswered to take a 12-7 advantage, during which Christiane Uzoh erupted for three of her 11 kills.
 
At 13-9 just seconds later, Henderson put together a 7-1 run to hold a commanding 20-10 lead. When it looked HSU was about to grab the first-set victory, SWOSU came with its own run.
 
Southwestern rallied behind three HSU attack errors to see a 10-2 run, closing the margin to within two at 22-20. With a 2-0 run by the home team met by a 3-0 run by the visitors, the score read 24-23 in favor of the Reddies before Robinson used one of her 13 kills to close the door on the opening frame, 25-23.
 
Henderson hit .289 for its best mark of any of the sets as the home team only had four errors to 15 kills to give HSU the early lead.
 
SET TWO
Set number two started off similarly to set one with the Bulldogs racing out to a 4-1 lead before HSU used a 6-0 run to retake the lead at 7-4. SWOSU, however, would see the lead again and hold it for much of the match as the Reddie home crowd prepared itself for a 1-1 draw.
 
At 19-17 in favor of SWOSU, a pair of kills from Robinson and an ace from Hatt fueled a Henderson 4-0 run to turn the match on its heels. With the 21-19 lead in favor of HSU, the Reddies were able to hang on, 26-24, seeing a 2-0 lead in the match.  
 
SET THREE
Starting fast and seeing an early lead seemed to be the kryptonite for both teams on the night as this time it was Henderson's turn to claim the early 4-1 lead. The Bulldogs refused to give in, however, staying stride-for-stride with the Reddies until they were able to jump ahead eventually at the 19-17 mark.
 
Southwestern used the worst hitting set of the night for Henderson to hold off being swept as SWOSU took the third frame, 25-22. Mendoza Quintana herself had three attack errors in the set. But the defending GAC Newcomer of the Year would not let that be story of her night.
 
SET FOUR
With the Bulldogs having played in three 5-set GAC matches already, another one appeared to be looming as SWOSU had all the momentum. The writing on the wall came early as Southwestern jumped out to an 8-4 advantage. The narrative of the match rang true, however, as that early lead proved futile late in the match.
 
At 9-6 in favor of the visitors, Mendoza Quintana broke out of her third-set funk and delivered back-to-back-to-back kills as part of a 5-0 Reddies run, snatching the 11-9 edge. Neither team budged an inch the rest of the way as play stood at 20-20 with the outcome of the match in the balance.
 
With Henderson claiming the very next point to make it 21-20, the match stats stood with each team seeing the exact same number of attacks, kills, attack errors, hitting percentage and assists. The unprecedented stat seemed to match the absolute classic that was being played out right in front of the Reddie faithful's eyes.
 
From there, the home crowd propelled Henderson forward as head coach Phil McDaniel's squad put the contest on ice with the final five points of the match to take the fourth and final set, 25-20.
 
Henderson State (15-4, 4-2) has tonight to enjoy this win before returning to the grind tomorrow when it faces another Oklahoma team in Northwestern Oklahoma State inside the Duke Wells Center. First serve is set for 6:30 p.m.