ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – Henderson State, while still high off its upset of first-place Arkansas Tech, did not fail to overlook the Blossoms of Arkansas-Monticello, downing UAM, 25-18, 25-15, 25-17. It was HSU's 10th sweep of the season.
 
Four Reddies carried attack percentages of .350 or better. Tyasia McGruder responded to her eight kills on Tuesday with eight winners tonight while hitting a team-high .471 with Kaitlyn Sykes backing her up with a .455 attack percentage and five kills.
 
Christiane Uzoh and Brae Denton finished their nights with eight kills and seven kills, hitting .353 and .375, respectively. Violeta Mendoza Quintana led the team with nine kills while also contributing three service aces on the night.  
 
SET ONE
Any fears of a let down from the home team were quickly set aside as Henderson wasted no time Thursday night, jumping out to a quick 9-3 lead. The Blossoms were able to cut it back to within three at 13-10 thanks to a couple errors from the Reddies, but HSU responded with a 4-2 run to quickly build the lead back to five.
 
From there, Mendoza Quintana put the first set on her back, delivering five kills from that point on to lead HSU to a first-set victory, 25-18. Henderson hit .278 in the opening frame.  
 
SET TWO
Neither the junior outside hitter from Chihuahua, Mexico, nor the team were satisfied with just being up 1-0 as the Reddies rattled off the first five points of set number two. The HSU defense forced three UAM attack errors while Mendoza Quintana registered two kills in that time. Henderson never looked back from there.
 
Holding the Blossoms to their lowest hitting percentage of any of the three sets (-.02), a focused Reddie group took the second frame, 25-15, as the home crowd could send a sweep coming on.
 
SET THREE
After HSU built a quick 4-1 out of the gate for the third stint, Monticello began putting the pieces together, knotting it up at 7-7. Before UAM could appreciate the fight in its players, however, the Reddies came with a 4-0 run for an 11-7 lead.
 
That lead eventually became 21-11 as HSU finished the job with a kill from freshman Andrea Roland to take the final set of the night, 25-17.
 
With two matches remaining in the regular season, Henderson State (19-8, 8-6) will have one more home match when it takes on cross-street rival Ouachita Baptist Tuesday, November 9 at 6:30 p.m. for Senior Night in the Duke Wells Center.