HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — Southern Nazarene finds itself in a familiar place after its second straight sweep that put it into the Great American Conference Championships Final for the second time in three years.
 
The Crimson Storm (19-10) won their seven straight match with a 3-0 (25-21, 25-22, 25-20) win over Ouachita (23-7). It was the second straight night that SNU returned the favor on a team from Arkadelphia that beat them 3-1 earlier in the year, and also in back-to-back matches.
 
Courtney Bowie and McKayla Benner tagged the Tigers for 27 of SNU's 51 kills as Bowie led the way with 14 while Benner had 13. Bowie added two blocks while Benner had four. Kaitlyn Vought and McKenna Qualls each had seven kills while Lexie Matthews had six. Matthews tied a career-high with five blocks and Vought had four to go with 14 digs.
 
Elyse Berlin recorded her 15^th double-double on the season with 36 assists and 10 digs to go with three kills. Abbey Bell had a match-high 19 digs and Hannah Davis added 12.
 
SNU as a team had 8.5 blocks and out dug Ouachita 66-51. The Storm also hit .207 (51-23-135).
 
The Storm had to hold off a charging Ouachita team in the first set after jumping out to an 11-3 lead. The Tigers answered with a 14-4 run to take a 17-15 lead, but a Qualls kill sparked a set-ending 10-4 run to take a 1-0 lead in the match. Benner had six kills in the first set alone.
 
It was SNU who had to rally from behind in the second set as it trailed 11-8 before another Qualls kill started a 5-0 run by the Storm to lead 13-11. Southern Nazarene could not push its lead out to more than three the rest of the set, but kept pace with the Tigers to take a 2-0 lead.
 
In the final set, SNU had a 14-11 lead, but watched it dwindle thanks to a 6-2 run by Ouachita. The Storm though answered with a 9-3 run to close out the match and put SNU into the GAC Championships Finals.