HSU 3rd, OBU 4th to finish GAC volleyball regular season
ARKADELPHIA — Henderson State will be the No. 3 seed and Ouachita Baptist will be the No. 4 seed when they arrive in Hot Springs this week for the Great American Conference volleyball tournament at Bank OZK Arena.
The quarterfinals of the tournament will be held on Thursday, the semifinals on Friday and the final on Saturday.
Henderson (26-5, 13-3) swept Southern Arkansas (821, 2-14) on senior night Thursday at the Duke Wells Center. Southwestern Oklahoma State
(20-6, 13-3) swept Henderson in Arkadelphia earlier this season but needed a four-set victory against Northwestern Oklahoma State (17-13, 6-9) on Thursday to secure the No. 2 seed.
Zuzana Ondruskova turned in nine kills with a .350 attacking percentage to lead the Reddies. She also made four digs.
Courtney Bolf paced the Reddies with 19 kills and surpassed the 1,000-kill milestone for her career. She now needs just nine digs to become the fifth player in program history to notch 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in a career.
Taylor Scalzi led the Reddies with 20 assists, while Abby Blackburn chipped in with 13 assists. Kenzie Thoman and Gigi Garramone led the defense with 16 and 11 digs, respectively.
The Tigers (22-8, 11-5) earned their own three-set sweep on senior night against Arkansas Tech (17-11, 10-6) to clinch the fourth seed. They were able to avenge a loss earlier in the season to the Golden Suns in Russellville.
Ouachita recorded 14 more kills than Arkansas Tech with a .349 hitting percentage. Katie Camp led the team with 18 kills, while Tabatha Huckabee and Adrianna Nolly added 12 kills and 11 kills, respectively.
Stormi Leonard had another 40-plus assist outing. Julianna Mack led the team with 15 digs, while Madison Wilson added 11 digs and Nikki Clay contributed seven digs to the win.
The two teams will face off again in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
Henderson is matched up in the first round with Oklahoma Baptist (16-16, 9-7). The Lady Bisons won in four sets on Thursday at Southern Nazarene (17-15, 9-7) to clinch the sixth seed and bump the Crimson Storm down to No. 7.
Southern Nazarene will face Southwestern in the opening round Thursday. Harding will be matched up with Northwestern. The Lady Bison won their 10th straight match on Thursday at home against Arkansas-Monticello (6-26, 3-13).