HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — Southern Nazarene made the first statement of the day in that it was business as usual with a 3-0 (25-18, 25-17, 25-23) win over Henderson State in the quarterfinals of the Great American Conference Volleyball Championships.
 
The win for the Crimson Storm (18-10) avenged a 3-0 loss earlier in the year in Arkadelphia and extended SNU's longest winning streak of the year to six.
 
Courtney Bowie had 12 kills and a season-high six blocks as the Storm hit double-digit blocks for the second time this year with 10. McKayla Benner also had six blocks to tie her season-high and added 10 kills as well. Lexie Matthews also had 10 kills. Elyse Berlin had 34 assists and a block, while Abbey Bell posted 26 digs. Bell also tied a career-high with four aces. Kaitlyn Vought also had 12 digs, four blocks, an ace and four kills.
 
SNU hit. 252 (42-14-111) and closed out the match with a .306 clip in the final set. The Storm also  out dug the Reddies (13-16) 54-49.
 
The Storm never trailed in the first set, but had to hold off Henderson late. SNU led by as much as seven at 16-9 before the Reddies closed it to 21-18. The Storm though scored the final four points that included a pair of Bowie kills to take the 1-0 lead in the match. SNU raced out to a 9-1 lead in the second set and cruised into the third where it rallied from a 7-0 hole. Henderson had its biggest lead of the match at eight three times with the final one coming at 15-7. SNU cut it to 18-14 to force a timeout before a Benner kill and a Berlin ace were bookend points of an 8-3 run as HSU was forced to call a timeout in between each stretch. In all, SNU used an 18-8 run after being down 15-7 to close out the match.