MAGNOLIA, Ark.- "Senior Night" was a battle inside the W.T. Watson Center as the Lady Mulerider Volleyball team forced a five-set match with Henderson State (21-25, 25-20, 16-25, 25-18, 14-16) that unfortunately ended up in a loss on Thursday night.
 
 
OF NOTE
 

• For just the second time in her career, Alli O'Banion produced back-to-back matches with 15 or more kills. In her final two career games, the Dos Palos, California, native finished with the most kills in any two-match stretch of her career.
• O'Banion finishes her career with the third-most kills in the Rally Scoring Era (RSE) with 1,023, while her 2,783 career attack attempts also ranks third in the RSE.
• By posting superb attack percentages in back-to-back matches (.361 & .311), O'Banion finishes her career ranked ninth in the RSE in attack percentage with a career clip of .201.
• O'Banion's 40 career block solos are the eighth-most in the RSE, while her 274 block assists are a career-best for a Lady Mulerider in the RSE.
• O'Banion's 314 career total blocks are the third-most in the RSE, while her 0.67 blocks per set career mark ranks fifth.
• O'Banion has played the most sets of any player in the RSE with 470 and has played in the second-most matches at 126.
• O'Banion's 1,208.0 total points are the third-most for a Lady Mulerider in the RSE.
• Savannah Pillow leaves SAU with the sixth-highest assists per set mark in a career in the RSE at 2.87.
• Alexia Southern's 1,022 attack attempts this season are the eighth-most in a single season in the RSE.
• Alexa Bass and Whitney Brown each cracked the top ten in service attempts in a single season with Bass' 447 tying for the fourth-most in the RSE and Brown's 385 tying for the tenth-most.
• Bailey Cagle capped an impressive freshman campaign along the front line by finishing with the third-most block assists in a single season in the RSE with 86.
• Cagle's 100 total blocks this season are the sixth-most for a Lady Mulerider in a single-season in the RSE, while her 0.87 blocks per set ranks as the seventh-highest mark in the RSE.
• SAU's 342 block assists in 2017 are the second-most in a single-season since 2000 and the most in a single season since 2003.
• The Lady Muleriders' 220.0 total blocks stand as the fourth-most for an SAU team since 2000 and the most in a single season since 2007. Their 1.88 blocks per set ranks fifth in a single season in the RSE and is also the highest per set average since 2007.
• Southern Arkansas finished its 2017 campaign with top ten single season team marks in the RSE in attack attempts (4,117) and service attempts (2,438).

 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
 

• The first set saw six tie-scores, five of which the Lady Muleriders prompted, and in the final stretch of the set Henderson broke an 18-all tie with a 3-0 run to take their second-highest lead of that set, 21-18.
• Following that sequence, a kill from Bailey Cagle followed by an HSU attack error brought the Lady Muleriders within a single point of the Reddies, 20-21. Henderson would score the next point to extend their lead, 22-20, and SAU's Alexia Southern answered with a kill to close the gap, 21-22, but the Reddies registered the final three points to take the first set, 25-21.
• SAU quickly halted the Reddie's celebration in the second set as they totaled five blocks to hold Henderson at a .062 attack percentage in the contest. The Reddies saw their last lead of that set at a score of 2-1 as SAU engineered a 14-3 run that impacted its largest lead of the night, 15-5.
• In that set, the Lady Muleriders were able to hold off a late Henderson rally allowing the Reddies to come as close as a two-point deficit, 22-20, before tallying the final three points courtesy of a pair of blocks and a kill from Morgan Gross, 25-20.
• Despite dropping the third set, 16-25, the Lady Muleriders got on the board early in the fourth with a 3-0 advantage. The Reddies scored the next seven points to take the lead, 7-3, and maintained that lead up until a 6-0 run that gave the Lady Muleriders the advantage, 13-10. SAU later extended that lead out to 21-12 with another substantial run that consisted of five kills and a pair of block assists to force a fifth set with a 25-18 final decision.
• The Lady Muleriders carried the momentum quickly into the final set as they led up until a score of 8-7. The Reddies took the lead to make it 11-9 and on three separate occasions SAU would come within a point shy of HSU. At match-point for the Reddies, 14-12, a block assist by Cagle and Gross gave SAU possession as Gross would deliver a kill on the next serve to tie the game at 14-all, but Henderson registered the next pair of points for the match victory at a final decision of 16-14.