SEARCY, Ark. – Henderson State did something that had not been done to Harding since Oct. 19, 2019, as HSU gave the No. 9 Harding Lady Bisons their toughest match of the season, but the Reddies fell just short as Harding downed Henderson in five sets, 3-2.
 
Violeta Mendoza Quintana led all Henderson players with 17 kills while Mya Robinson registered 15. Freshman Brae Denton had her best match as a Reddie, piling on a team-high six blocks, followed by Kaitlyn Sykes with three.
 
SET ONE
Henderson State started off firing with a 6-2 run to open the match, only to have Harding respond with a 3-0 spurt to bring the first set to 6-5. Neither team saw more than a two point lead from then on until, with the Lady Bisons ahead 17-15, the Reddies put together five straight points to take the 20-17 lead.
 
With Harding gaining a bit of ground with back-to-back kills to close the gap to one, 20-19, points were traded off until the set drew even, 24-24. With a set needing to be won by two points, a kill from Mendoza Quintana and a service ace from Sykes gave HSU the 26-24 first-set victory.
 
That set win from the Reddies marked the first set Harding had lost on its home floor since Oct. 19, 2019, with HU having won five straight matches inside Rhodes Reaves Field House in which the Lady Bisons swept each contest.
 
SET TWO
Harding took to the offensive to start set two as the HU maintained a three point lead for most of the first half of the second frame. At 13-12 Harding, HSU hit the Lady Bisons with three unanswered points to take its biggest lead of the set at 15-13. The lead was short-lived, however, as Harding came back with its own three unanswered to retake the lead, 16-15.
 
With the lead changing hands three more times, Harding took the lead once and for all at 20-19 as the Lady Bisons evened the set count at one with the 25-23 second set triumph.
 
SET THREE
It was Henderson's turn to go on the offensive as it held the lead for much of the third set. With Harding holding a brief lead at 11-9, HSU utilized three attack errors from the Lady Bisons to jump out to a 14-11 lead. Harding tied it up at 14, but the was the last tie to be seen in the third frame.
 
The Reddies ran away with it from that point on, closing the set on an 11-5 run for the 25-19 win as HSU stood one set away from the upset. During that late-set burst, HSU got two kills from Robinson and Christiane Uzoh each.
 
SET FOUR
Harding controlled the fourth set from start to finish with the Lady Bisons building its biggest lead of the entire match towards the end of the fourth frame, 22-12. Harding wound up seeing a nine-point set win, 25-16, sending the match to the fifth and final set.
 
SET FIVE
In Harding's first five-set match of the season and Henderson's second, a potential top-10 upset hung in the balance. The Lady Bisons had other plans, however, as a 6-2 run to open the final frame gave the host-Lady Bisons all the momentum. With Henderson State getting as close as 8-9, back-to-back attack errors from Henderson followed by back-to-back kills from Harding's Emily Smith was all she wrote as Harding escaped the potential upset, 15-11.
 
A date with another nationally ranked team awaits Henderson State (3-4) when No. 17 Arkansas Tech comes to the Duke Wells Center Tuesday, Mar. 16 at 6:30 p.m.