ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — McKayla Benner had a season-high 16 kills and hit .333 for Southern Nazarene in a 3-1 (25-18, 25-22, 18-25, 27-25) loss at Ouachita Baptist Friday evening.
 
The junior also added a season-high five blocks for the Crimson Storm (8-7, 4-2 GAC) who dropped their second straight match. Courtney Bowie, who sat out Tuesday's game with Midwestern State, added 10 kills and three blocks. Bailee Turang also had eight kills and 23 digs. Elyse Berlin had 50 assists and 12 digs. Abbey Bell tallied 12 digs while Kaitlyn Vought had five blocks to go with six kills and five digs.
 
The Storm were held to a .162 (57-31-160) clip while the Tigers (12-5, 4-3 GAC) hit .253. Each team had 10 blocks and SNU out dug Ouachita 68-64. The Tigers though had just 17 hitting errors.
 
Ouachita started pulling away from SNU in the first set with a 7-2 run to break a 9-9 tie and lead 16-11. The Storm later cut the lead to 20-18, but the Tigers scored five straight to end the first set and take a 1-0 lead. SNU never led the in the second set, but had six ties early in the set. The Storm were down late in the set just 21-20 before the Tigers ended the set on a 4-2 run to take a 2-0 lead at the break.
 
Southern Nazarene bounced back in the third set though. SNU broke an 8-8 tie with a 9-2 run started by a Turang kill and led 17-10. That was a big enough gap for the Storm to hold the rest of the set and bring SNU within one in the match at 2-1. The Storm rode that momentum right into the fourth set as it opened with a 6-1 run. The Tigers answered with a 4-1 run to close it to 8-6 and eventually 9-7, but SNU kept Ouachita at bay. SNU led 17-11, when the Tigers struck with a 10-3 run to take its first lead of the set at 21-20. SNU tied it at 12 as the first of five more ties before Ouachita got back-to-back kills to break a 25-25 tie and gave Southern Nazarene its first road loss in the GAC season.