HSU, OBU roll into regular season finales

Henderson State swept Arkansas-Monticello on the road Tuesday, while Ouachita Baptist completed a season sweep of Southern Arkansas in Magnolia in their penultimate regular season matches.

Courtney Bolf and Abby Blackburn recorded double-doubles as Henderson (25-4, 12-3 Great American Conference) defeated the Boll Weevils

(6-25, 3-12), 25-17, 25-17, 25-21, in the final away match of the season for the Reddies. Their 12 conference wins this season is the most for the program since

2001, when Henderson finished 11-1 in conference play to win the Gulf South Conference’s West Division.

Bolf’s 15 kills and 22 digs left her just four kills and 17 digs away from becoming the fifth player in school history with more than 1,000 kills and

1,000 digs in a career. Blackburn made 14 assists and 11 digs.

Karlie Green notched nine kills with a .444 attacking percentage. Kenzie Thoman collected 15 digs to reach double-digit digs for the sixth time in her last seven matches. Taylor Scalzi chipped in with 12 assists.

Ouachita (21-8, 10-5) took the first two sets Tuesday, but Southern Arkansas (8-20, 2-13) forced a fourth set in which the visitors his .545. The Tigers prevailed, 25-23, 25-16, 17-25, 25-16, and now have six consecutive wins over the Muleriders dating back to the 2015 season.

Adrianna Nolly finished with a team-high 17 kills and Katie Camp contributed 14 kills. Julianna Mack led the team with 20 digs, while Shannon Hogan and Hannah Johnson each added 12 digs. Stormi Leonard added 47 assists and eight digs.

Both Henderson and Ouachita have qualified

for next week’s conference tournament at the Hot Springs Convention Center’s Bank OZK Arena. The first round is scheduled for Nov. 8, the semifinals on Nov. 9 and the final on Nov. 10.

The Tigers will return home tonight at 6 p.m. to battle Arkansas Tech (17-10, 10-5), which fell back into a tie for fourth place with Ouachita after a five-set defeat against GAC leader Harding (21-7, 14-1) on Tuesday. Arkansas Tech swept the only other matchup between the two teams this season in Russellville in September.

Henderson is also in a tie for second place with Southwestern Oklahoma State (19-6, 12-3), which suffered a five-set defeat at home to sixth-place Southern Nazarene (17-14, 9-6) Tuesday. Southwestern won the only matchup between the two this season in October in Arkadelphia.

The Reddies’ final match of the regular season will be at 6:30 p.m. in the Duke Wells Center against Southern Arkansas for senior night.