Alva Review-Courier -

ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — Henderson State had three players with double-doubles and played stellar defense all night to upset Harding, 3-1 (22-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-19). The win is the program's first over the Lady Bisons since 2009 when the Reddies were members of the Gulf South Conference and is just the second Great American Conference loss on the year for Harding.

SET ONE: In what would end up being a theme of the evening, the first set was tight the entire way. With the score tied at 11-11, the Reddies went on a 5-2 spurt behind kills from Karlie Greene, Adrianna Hartmann and Courtney Bolf, to take a 16-13 lead. Harding answered with an 8-3 run of its own to go up 21-18, but HSU would not go away and pushed the score back within 23-22 in the set's waning moments. The Lady Bisons, however, were too much in the first, as they took the final two points to win it 25-22 and go up 1-0 in the match.

SET TWO: Henderson led by as many as four in the second frame, 15-11, but again, Harding rallied to take the lead, this time at 20-18, to push the Reddies to the brink of an 0-2 hole. HSU refused to let that happen and instead ripped off a 7-2 run, which featured two kills each from Zuzana Ondruskova, Violet Williams and Bolf, to roar back and tie the match with a 25-22 second set victory. Ondruskova had a big set for Henderson with four kills and an attack percentage of .400.

SET THREE: Harding came out hot in the third set and raced out to a quick 9-4 lead that they then extended to 13-6. Once again, Henderson would not go away, and countered with a gradual 13-8 run to tie the game, 17-17, before taking its first lead, 19-18, minutes later on a Bolf kill. Harding regained the lead at one point, 20-19, but did not hold it for long, as the Reddies finished strong once again, this time with a 6-2 run, to pull away and win the pivotal third set, 25-22, and seize a 2-1 lead. As a team, Henderson hit .323 in the set — the highest attacking percentage for either team in a set during the match — and also had 17 digs to Harding's 10.

SET FOUR: The fourth set proved to be a battle throughout, as neither team could get significant separation from the other. With things knotted up at 16-16, the Reddies made their big move, and used three kills from Ondruskova and three Lady Bisons' errors to go on a 6-2 spurt and take a 22-18 lead. Harding tried to regroup with a timeout, but Henderson refused to be denied and took three of the final four points in the set after the stoppage to finish it off, 25-19, and secure its biggest victory of the year. The Reddies hit .227 in the final period and held the Lady Bisons to an attacking percentage of just .098.

GAME NOTES: Bolf notched a double-double for Henderson with a team-high 14 kills and 12 digs to go with it, while Sariah Boney matched Bolf with a double-double of her own, going for 29 assists and 23 digs. Abby Blackburn claimed the Reddies' third double-double of the match with 22 assists and 11 digs. Sydney Skelton battled back from a hard fall in the third set to finish with 23 digs as well for the Reddies, while Ondruskova and Williams each tallied 11 kills offensively. Greene was the leader at the net, finishing with a game-high four solo blocks. Henderson took advantage of Harding miscues in the win, as the Lady Bisons finished with 27 attack errors and 13 service errors on the night, while the Reddies had just 20 total errors in the match. HSU also out-hit Harding, finishing with a team attacking percentage of .200 to the Lady Bisons' .197. The Reddies became the second GAC team to defeat Harding this year, after unbeaten and No. 10 ranked Arkansas Tech. The win is HSU's first over the Lady Bisons since the formation of the GAC in 2011 and snaps a 15-match losing skid to Harding. The win moves Henderson to 12-15 on the season and 5-9 in GAC action.

UP NEXT: The Reddies will play again next Tuesday, Nov. 7, against Arkansas-Monticello at 6 p.m. on Senior Night in the Duke Wells Center.