Box Score
BETHANY, Okla. — One thing is for sure after Thursday night's match between No. 22 Oklahoma Baptist and Southern Nazarene; both teams will be going home with plenty red marks and bruises after each pounded big shots all night and the two combined for 213 digs as the OBU held off SNU for a 3-2 (27-29, 25-19, 25-18, 24-26, 15-12)
The Crimson Storm (13-4, 2-1 SAC) took the top team in the conference, which led No. 1 Texas Brownsville 2-0 last week before falling 3-2, to five sets and in the midst, set a season-high for blocks and digs with 14.5 blocks and 105 digs. The Storm twice battled back from being behind in the first and fourth sets and nearly pulled it off in the fifth as well.
SNU trailed by as much as five in the first and faced a match point and were two points away from losing the fourth, but the Storm found a way to win both.
The Storm also had a big rally in the fifth after being down 12-7. A
Taylor Jacobs kill ignited a run of four straight points as the Storm closed the gap to 12-11 and forced an OBU timeout. Two straight errors handed match point to OBU before
Ellen Martin ripped her last kill of the night to make it 14-12, but OBU closed it out to move to 14-9 overall and 3-0 in SAC play.
Martin and
Jamie Hope both had career highs in blocks as each posted eight.
Taylor Jacobs had five blocks while
Kira Roberts had three. Martin led the way in nearly every category as she topped SNU in kills with 18, digs with 24 and tied Hope for the match-high in blocks. It was Martin's sixth double-double of the season.
Roberts added 14 kills while Jacobs had 11.
Natalia Oliveira also had nine kills to go with her 15 digs.
Kaylee Piatt was just two assists shy of her season-high with 51 and she also notched 14 digs.
KateLyn Biddy was just a dig short of tying Martin for the team high with 23 while
Emily Troup posted a career-high 17 digs.
With 213 digs, it wasn't much of a surprise that neither team hit over .200. OBU hit .123 (63-36-220) while the Storm hit .088 (59-40-216).
SNU held the first advantage of the first set as the Storm got three straight kills from Hope, Roberts and Piatt and an OBU to take an 11-8 lead. The Lady Bison answered with three straight to tie it at 11 and eventually took a 23-18 lead late in the set. The Storm responded with six straight to take set point at 24-23. Martin had two kills in the 6-0 run. SNU had set point again at 25-24, before the Lady Bison scored two straight to hold set point at 26-25. Two straight errors though for OBU gave set point back to SNU at 27-26. After OBU tied it at 27, a Jacobs kill and a Lady Bison error gave SNU the set.
Oklahoma Baptist jumped out to a 10-4 lead to start the second set, but SNU answered with a 14-8 run to tie it at 18-18. The Lady Bison closed the second set with a 7-1 run to tie the match at 1-1. Neither team led by more than three until OBU broke a 12-12 tie with a 6-1 run and controlled the rest of the set from there to lead 2-1.
In the fourth set, OBU took an early 8-5 lead before Martin capped a 7-2 run with a kill to put the Storm up 12-10. The Lady Bison responded with a 6-3 run to take a 16-15 lead, but Martin sparked run of four consecutive points to put SNU back up 19-16. The Lady Bison scored five straight to lead 21-19, but another Martin kill capped a 5-2 run and gave SNU set point at 24-23. OBU tied it at 24, but a Roberts kill and an OBU error sent the match to a fifth before OBU put SNU away in the final set.
The Storm now step back outside the conference and take a trip to Bethel (Kan.) where they will play both Bethel and Tabor (Kan.), Saturday, at 1 and 3 p.m.
