ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – Christiane Uzoh hits a career-high 23 kills in Henderson State's 3-2 victory over cross-street rivals Ouachita Baptist in the GAC opener inside the Sturgis Physical Education Center.
 
HSU (7-2, 1-0) outhit OUA .265 to .221 across the five sets and recorded 63 kills compared to OUA's 50. Defensively, the Reddies out-blocked the Tigers 8-5 and tallied more digs with 58 to Ouachita Baptist's 48.
 
In addition to Uzoh's 23 kills, Violeta Mendoza Quintana and Madison Hatt each had a double-double. Mendoza Quintana tallied 11 kills and a team-high 20 digs, while Hatt had 31 assists and 11 digs. The Reddies had three players hit over .250 for the match, as Larkin Luke had seven kills on a .429 attack average and Uzoh and Mendoza Quintana hit .391 and .261, respectively.
 
SET ONE
The Reddies opened the scoring with a kill and service ace by Mendoza Quintana, but the Tigers responded with a flurry of attacks to take their first lead 6-4. OUA went on another run, outscoring HSU 3-0 to extend its advantage to 10-7. Henderson tied the set at 12 all after two kills from Uzoh and Mendoza Quintana and would retake the lead after a bad set by OUA, 14-13.
 
Ouachita Baptist strung together another flurry of attacks at the end of the set with a 6-1 run before scoring four straight points to close out the frame 25-18. Mendoza Quintana and Uzoh led the attack in the first set with four and three kills, respectively.
 
SET TWO
The two sides traded scores through the first ten points before OUA found separation at 14-11 after a pair of attack errors by HSU. The Tigers kept a two-point margin over the Reddies, but Henderson quickly grabbed the momentum during a 4-0 run that featured kills from Uzoh and Brae Denton to take the lead 20-18. HSU ended the set on four consecutive kills, including back-to-back kills by Luke, taking set two 25-20 and tying the match at 1-1.  
 
SET THREE
Henderson State was up 4-1 in the early exchanges of set three and would expand on its advantage with a kill from Jacey Tupper and a service error by OUA, 6-3. Ouachita Baptist battled back to tie the frame 8-8, but the Reddies would go back on top 10-8 after a kill from Uzoh.
 
From there, the Tigers went on an 11-1 run to race out to a 19-11 lead. HSU cut the deficit to five, but OUA's attack proved too much as the Tigers won the third set 25-16.
 
SET FOUR
Looking to force a fifth set, Henderson was ahead 8-6 after three kills from Uzoh and a kill by Mia Sanchez and Denton. The Reddies kept up the momentum with a 6-1 run to extend the lead to 14-8. Uzoh helped HSU to its largest lead of the set, 23-15, with four more kills. Mendoza Quintana and Denton finished off the frame with kills 25-16.
 
Henderson State had 16 kills on a .211 attack percentage, led by Uzoh, who recorded eight kills in the frame. Ouachita Baptist was held to just seven kills on -.031 hitting.
 
SET FIVE
Needing 15 points to win the match and all the momentum on their side, the Reddies raced ahead to a 6-1 lead with five kills from Uzoh. Ouachita Baptist cut HSU's advantage to two on a 3-0 run, 7-5. A kill by Jagoda Szybinska and two more from Uzoh pushed Henderson ahead 13-9 and would set up the final kill by Szybinska to win the set 15-10.  
 
Henderson State returns to the Duke Wells Center for its next four matches as the team hosts the annual Reddie-Tiger Invitational on Sept. 15-16. HSU's first matches are against Christian Brothers at 12 p.m. followed by Union at 6 p.m. on Friday.