HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — A little fear may have entered into the Southern Nazarene fans early Thursday after SNU dropped the opening set of the GAC Championships, but it removed all doubt over the final three sets with a 3-1 (21-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-21) win over Ouachita.


The win moves the Crimson Storm (16-16, 11-5 GAC) into the semifinals for the second straight year where they will play Southwestern Oklahoma State at 3:30 p.m. Friday.
 
Lexie Matthews continued her hot run in the GAC Championships as the junior had a career-high 18 kills to go with 12 digs for her second double-double in three matches. She also added four blocks. Courtney Bowie also added 12 kills and two blocks whiel McKayla Benner had 10 kills and six blocks. Kaitlyn Vought was just a kill short of a double-double with nine as she had 12 digs. She also had five blocks.
 
Abbey Bell broke her own tournament record set last season as the junior had 34 digs. Elyse Berlin added 18 digs as well to go with 47 assists and a block.
 
The Storm doubled up the Tigers in blocks with 10 and out dig Ouachita 97-87.
 
The Tigers opened the first set with a 6-2 lead, but the Storm answered with an 8-1 run to lead 10-7. Ouachita responded right back with a 9-3 run to lead 16-13 and never gave the lead back to take the first set.
 
SNU never trailed in the next two sets and kept good distance after early leads. SNU led 12-6 in the second set and the Tigers came no closer than four the rest of the way. The Storm came out strong in the third set with a 20-8 lead and looked to be cruising until Ouachita answered with an 8-3 run to cut it to 23-16. The Storm took set point at 24-16, but the Tigers kept charging to cut it to 24-19 and forced an SNU timeout. Vought though put it away with a kill out of the middle to give the Storm at 2-1 lead.
 
The Tigers scored the first four points of fourth set, but SNU went on a 16-8 run to lead 16-12. Ouachita closed it to 16-14, but that was as close as they came the rest of the way.