BETHANY, Okla. — Southern Nazarene was cruising for a complete series sweep of Northwestern Oklahoma State after it led 2-0 in Thursday night's match, but the Rangers had other thoughts in mind in a tight finish.
 
The Crimson Storm (13-10, 8-5 GAC) jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the match, but watched the Rangers (3-24, 1-11 GAC) hit .321 in the third set and force a fourth set. Thoughts of Tuesday night's tough loss to Southeastern had to be creeping in when Northwestern had set-point at 24-23 in the fourth, but the Storm scored three straight to take the match at 3-1 (25-28, 25-22, 13-25, 26-24). The win, combined with losses from Southern Arkansas and East Central, clinched a spot in the Great American Conference Championships.
 
McKenna Qualls led the way with a season-high 16 kills. The senior also had two aces. Courtney Bowie had 12 kills and four blocks while Kaitlyn Bought had eight kills, six digs and two blocks. Abbey Bell had 28 digs on the night while Hannah Davis and Bailee Turang each had 11. Elyse Berlin was just a dig shy of a double-double with 41 assists and nine digs. Makenna Hunter also had four blocks.
 
The storm had six blocks on the night and out dug Northwestern 83-67. SNU was held to just a .137 clip though and had just one set that hit over .200.
 
SNU didn't break open the first set until a Courtney Bowie kill started a 4-0 late in the set to put SNU up 21-17. The run continued to 7-2 to close out the set as the Storm took a 1-0 lead in the match. The Storm never trailed in the second set, but never led by more than five. SNU was up 21-18 when the Rangers scored three straight to tie it at 21. SNU though closed out the set with a 4-1 run to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
Northwestern took the Storm by surprise in the third set by hitting .321 while SNU hit just .030. Southern Nazarene jumped out to a 5-1 lead, but Northwestern closed the set on a 24-12 run to take the third set and cut the match lead to 2-1. In the final set the Storm held an 18-14 lead late, but the Rangers scored four straight to tie it at 18. After ties in the next five points, the Rangers had set-point at 24-23. A NWOSU error tied it at 24 before Qualls gave match-point to SNU at 25-24. Berlin and Hunter then got the match-winning block to seal it.