Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Playing in its first national tournament under Head Coach Kevin Ingram, Southern Nazarene split its first two matches at the NCCAA National Championship with a 3-0 loss to Shorter and a 3-1 win over Oakland City.
 
"It's the first time we've been at a big tournament like this and it took a bit to get everything going," said Ingram. "It was good to see them fight through that and then take off in the second and third sets against Oakland City. Our pin hitters got going midway through and that helped us a ton."
 
The Crimson Storm (26-11) finally got things rolling in the second set over Oakland City. Trailing 1-0 in the match, and tied at 20 in the second set, Jamie Hope ripped three kills in a string of five straight points to tie the match at 1-1. SNU hit .375 in the second set and had seven of its 12 aces in the third set. The Storm raced out to a 15-5 lead and withstood a late run before taking a 2-1 lead in the match.
 
"That's the one thing we didn't do earlier in the day was serve and pass well at all," said Ingram. "We started serving better and put the pressure on them and were getting easier opportunities back. We had too many unforced errors in the first match today and we got back under control in the second one."
 
SNU hit .344 (13-2-32) in the final set and used a 9-3 run down the stretch to close out the match. The Storm trailed 17-16, when Hope sparked the run to get its first win of the national championship.
 
Hope finished with a career-high 19 kills and hit .317. She also added 11 digs and four blocks. Taylor Jacobs and Kira Roberts each had nine kills while Emilee Crawford had eight kills. Jacobs and Roberts also combined for seven kills as Jacobs had three and Roberts had a four. Jacobs also had nine digs.
 
"We knew we could be productive in the middle," said Ingram. "We needed to get the ball in Jamie's hands a lot to do what she is capable of doing. She's been playing well all season and strong the past few weeks and she proved that again today."
 
Kaylee Piatt had 45 assists and seven digs. Abbey Bell totaled 28 digs while Emily Dick had four blocks.
 
SNU as a team hit .226 and had eight blocks.
 
In the opener, SNU hit just .214 and had nine service errors while Shorter had eight aces. Jacobs led the way with 13 kills while Hope and Roberts each had eight. Jacobs and Hope each had nine digs while Hope had five blocks. Crawford had three blocks and Bell had 15 digs.
 
SNU led 11-9 in the first set before Shorter scored four straight to lead 13-11 and never trailed from there to take a 1-0 lead in the match. The Storm held another late lead in the second at 17-14, but the Hawks again scored four straight to lead 18-17 and closed it out to lead 2-0. Shorter led nearly start to finish in the third to close out SNU for the three-set sweep.
 
The Crimson Storm will now wrap up pool play by taking on top-seeded Point Loma Nazarene, Friday, at 10 a.m. (EST) and Campbellsville (Ky.) at 2 p.m. (EST)