Box Score

SHAWNEE, Okla. — Southern Nazarene had not lost in 10 straight matches coming into Tuesday night's showdown in Shawnee, but the same team who gave SNU its last loss also gave them their next loss as No. 22 Oklahoma Baptist downed Southern Nazarene 3-1 (25-22, 20-25, 25-22, 25-17).
 
The Crimson Storm (23-5, 7-2 SAC) fired nearly shot for shot through the first three sets, but ran out of momentum late and were taken back by the loss of Taylor Jacobs who went down hard in the third set and didn't return. She was hitting .409 and had nine kills with eight digs when she went down.
 
Southern Nazarene hit over .250 in the first two sets with a .286 (17-5-42) clip in the first and a .327 (18-1-52) clip in the second, but didn't hit over .150 in the final three sets.
 
Natalia Oliveira led the way with 18 kills and a career-high 30 digs. Ellen Martin had 15 kills and 16 digs while hitting .261. Kaylee Piatt dished out 47 assists and had 19 digs. KateLyn Biddy notched 27 digs while Emily Troup had 12.
 
The Lady Bison took an early 6-2 lead in the opening set, but SNU rallied with a 5-1 run capped by a Oliveira kill to tie it at 7-7. After six ties, the Storm finally took their first lead of the set on an Martin kill to put SNU up 15-14. OBU answered with a 4-0 run to take an 18-15 lead and led 19-16 before SNU scored three straight with an OBU error, a Taylor Jacobs kill and a Biddy ace to tie it at 19.
 
The two teams traded a pair of points to tie it at 21 before the Lady Bison scored three straight to take set point at 24-21. Oliveira had one last effort with a kill to make it 24-22, but SNU dropped the next point to go down 1-0 in the match.
 
The Storm held the early in the second set before Martin ripped back-to-back kills to break the eighth tie of the set and put SNU up 15-13. The Storm didn't give the lead back from that point on through the set. The Storm led 22-20 late in the set when they got two straight kills from Kira Roberts to take set point and then got an OBU error to take the set and tie the match at 1-1.
 
SNU used a 5-0 run capped by a Martin early in the third to lead 7-4 and didn't give the lead back until OBU jumped out in front with a 13-12 advantage. The Lady Bison extended the lead to 18-15 before SNU scored three straight to tie it at 18. OBU broke a 20-20 tie later in the set and cruised from there to take a 25-22.
 
OBU led from start to finish in the fourth, but never held a lead bigger than four until it used a 5-1 run to lead 16-10 and held SNU off from there.
 
The Crimson Storm now get set to host Saint Gregory's, Thursday, for a 7 p.m. conference match.