Box Score

BETHANY — Sometimes coaches just need to shake things up a bit. Most coaches wouldn't dream of putting their best hitter at setter, but that's exactly what Kevin Ingram did and the show couldn't have run much smoother as Southern Nazarene defeated Bethel (Kan.), 3-0 (25-21, 25-16, 26-24).

Taryn Steele came into the night leading the team in digs, was second in kills and was third in blocks and had just seven assists. That changed Friday night. Steele was shifted to setter and dished out a match-high 33 assists (11 d/s) and also posted 15 digs for her eighth double-double of the year. She also posted five blocks and three kills to go with four aces.

Morgan Loewen ripped a match-high 14 kills while Ellen Martin and Kira Roberts had nine and seven kills respectively. Roberts didn't have an error the entire match, hitting .389 (7-0-18). Martin was just one kill away from her first double-double of the year as she also posted 12 digs. Sarah Groesbeck chipped in with 11 digs as the libero and Angela Evans posted a match-high six blocks.

The Crimson Storm (9-7) were hot in the first two sets, hitting .310 (17-4-42) in the first set and .476 (12-2-21) in the second.

SNU trailed 3-1 to start the match, but a Martin kill started a 13-4 run that was capped by a Danielle Hampton ace. Bethel (10-3) worked its way back into the second and closed it to two on a few occasions with the last coming at 23-21, but back-to-back kills by Martin and Loewen closed out the set and put SNU up 1-0 in the match.

The Threshers once again stormed out to a 4-1 lead in the second, and again SNU came roaring back. Evans ripped a kill that sparked an 8-1 run as the Crimson Storm took a 9-5 lead. Bethel cut it to 9-6, but that was as close as it came the rest of the set. The big run in the set came after a service error that put SNU up 14-9. That was the first point of an 11-4 run that gave SNU a 24-13 lead. Four different Crimson Storm had kills in that run. SNU then took advantage of a Thresher error to close out the set.

The third set mirrored the first two early with Bethel leading early and SNU quickly regaining the lead. The Crimson Storm jumped out a 16-9 lead and looked to be cruising again. A service error and two Bethany Thiesen kills made it a 17-12 set. Bethel trailed 19-14 when Malerie Hertzler ripped a kill and an SNU error made it 19-16. Hampton put the Crimson Storm up 20-16 before a pair of errors cut it to 20-18. Bethel trailed 22-20 before it got three straight points off of three straight SNU errors to lead 23-22. Loewen tied it with a kill and a Bethel error gave set point to SNU at 24-23, but Thiesen tied with another kill. Another Thresher error gave set point back to SNU and Loewen put it away with the final kill of the night.

The Crimson Storm now have the weekend off and will prepare to get back to Sooner Athletic Conference play when they host John Brown, Tuesday, at 7 p.m.