BETHANY, Okla. — After a night that seemed more like a scene from this past Saturday with fire alarms, scoreboard malfunctions and a fan in a headless costume, it was definitely a weird night for Southern Nazarene in a 3-1 (21-25, 25-17, 25-14, 25-23) win over East Central.
 
The Crimson Storm (13-15, 9-4 GAC) moved back into third place alone and can control their destiny in holding on to the second seed in the Great American Conference Championships after a Southwestern Oklahoma State loss at Oklahoma Baptist. McKenna Qualls ripped 18 kills and hit .419 on the night. McKayla Benner had 13 kills and four blocks while Kaitlyn Vought had 12 kills, 14 digs and six blocks.
 
Elyse Berlin had 48 assists and 15 digs while Abbey Bell had 16 digs. Hannah Davis also had 11 digs and Courtney Bowie had three blocks. Lexie Matthews helped in numerous ways as well with six kills, three aces, eight digs and two blocks.
 
The Crimson Storm hit .199 (58-28-151) and had nine blocks on the night. They also out dug the Tigers (5-19, 1-12 GAC) 72-57.
 
SNU led 14-8 in the first set, but ECU rallied with a 14-6 run to take a 22-20 lead and forced a Storm timeout. Southern Nazarene responded to cut it to 22-21, but the Tigers closed with three straight points to take the opening set.
 
That was the only set that ECU took as the Storm rallied to hit .162, .303 and .238 in the final three sets. The Storm trailed just once in the second set, once in the third and twice in the fourth. In the final set, SNU had led by as much as four at 12-8, but the Tigers chipped away until an 18-18 tie. After four more ties, with the final one coming at 23, the Storm got back-to-back kills from Matthews and Qualls to put the match away.