BETHANY, Okla. — It didn't take long for Southern Nazarene University to bounce back from a loss Friday as SNU steamrolled Southwestern Oklahoma State, 3-0 (27-25, 25-18, 25-20), to stay unbeaten in Great American Conference play.
 
The Crimson Storm (8-4, 2-0 GAC) became just one of two teams left unbeaten in GAC play as SNU gave the Bulldogs (4-6, 2-1 GAC) their first loss. Arkansas Tech, who SNU plays Friday at 4 p.m., downed another undefeated GAC team in Harding Tuesday night, leaving the Storm and Golden Suns as the only two left.
 
"We definitely got some things rolling as we got into the match after a bit of a slow start," said SNU Head Coach Kevin Ingram. "We made some key in-game adjustments to get the win."
 
Kaylee Piatt had 37 assists and was just a dig shy of a double-double with nine. With her first four assists, Piatt became just the second player in school history to hit 3,000 career assists. Taylor Jacobs again came up big for SNU, hitting .394 with 16 kills and had just three errors on 33 attempts. Jacobs also had eight digs and two aces. Lexie Matthews also had 10 kills and seven digs while Emily Dick had nine kills and hit .294.
 
"Kaylee, is a true talent," said Ingram. "There's no doubt she's earned her keep here. She may be one of the most talented players we have ever had in this program. She definitely leads everything out there and does a great job. We're really encouraging Lexie right now is just to beat the ball," said Ingram. "She's got to come in and hit it hard every time. When she does she is very productive."
 
SNU was out blocks for just the second time this year as Southwestern had six blocks while SNU had two, but it didn't matter as SNU had 76 digs, including 30 between Abbey Bell and Elyse Berlin. Bell finished with a match-high 16 while Berlin had 14. Dani Chase and Emilee Crawford each had seven digs while Crawford had six kills.
 
"Digging was the key adjustment tonight from game one to two and three was that we had to pick up all the tips and rolls," said Ingram. "Even though those are not hard hit balls, they are digs on the stat sheet and that's the whole difference is us picking that up."
 
The Storm struggled in the first set hitting, just .082, but bounced back with a .310 clip in the second set and hit .245 in the third. There were 11 ties and six lead changes in the first set, just one lead change the rest of the way as SNU controlled it nearly from the first serve on in the final two sets.