ALVA, Okla. — It's been no secret over the years for Southern Nazarene's basketball teams that Alva may be one of the hardest places to play a game. You can now add volleyball to that list as SNU survived a raucous atmosphere in a 3-2 (25-22, 26-28, 25-18, 22-25, 15-11) win over Northwestern Oklahoma State.

It was the first five set win of the year for the Crimson Storm (9-5, 2-0 GAC) who start the Great American Conference season 2-0 for the second straight year. It was also the first five-set win of the season for SNU.
 
"We just had to continue to fight and find ways to win," said SNU Head Coach Kevin Ingram. "We weren't playing our best. We played ok, but we just had different types of adversity. They do have a home court advantage up there. They had that place packed with everyone and it was loud."
 
Taylor Jacobs finished with a career-high 28 kills and hit .323 while notching her seventh double-double of the season with a career-high 13 digs. She also added a block. Seven different players recorded a kill for SNU as Emily Dick finished with nine kills and had career-highs with seven blocks and six digs. Jamie Hope and Kira Roberts each had eight kills. Roberts also came up with a career-high five aces and four blocks while Hope had 10 digs and a block.
 
Kaylee Piatt nearly had her second 50-assist match of the year as she had 48 and notched her fourth double-double of the year with 10 digs. She also had two aces and a block. Abbey Bell chimed in with 14 digs and three aces.
 
The Crimson Storm hit .287 (65-19-160) and served a season-high 12 aces on the night. SNU also out blocked Northwestern 9-3.
 
SNU held on tight to an early in lead in the first that the Rangers roared back to tie it at 15-15. The Storm pushed it to 20-16 and survived to take a 1-0 lead. Southern Nazarene had a chance to honestly put the match away in three sets as it held a bit lead in the second set. SNU was up 18-11 before Northwestern rallied to tie it at 23. The Rangers eventually took the set  at 28-26 and knotted the match at 1-1.
 
The Storm led from start to finish in the third set to lead 2-1 and then gave up a late lead again in the third set. SNU led 15-11 when the Rangers went on a 9-3 run to lead 20-18. SNU got within one at 21-20, but that was as close as the Storm came. It nearly happened again to SNU in the fifth set as the Storm raced to a 6-0 lead. The Rangers answered with a 9-3 run to tie it at 9-9, but the Storm got back-to-back kills from Hope and Roberts to lead 11-9. Northwestern tied it at 11 before a service error gave SNU a 12-11 advantage. A Jacobs kill made it 13-11 before Piatt closed out the match with two straight aces.
 
The Storm will go for a school best 3-0 start in the GAC, Tuesday, when they host rival Southwestern Oklahoma State for a 7 p.m. match.