BETHANY - Junior outside hitter
Bailee Turang notched her 1,000th career kill while the Southern Nazarene volleyball team put together a fantastic team effort to sweep Northwestern in a crucial GAC contest on Thursday evening at the Sawyer Center.
In the third set with SNU trailed 8-6, Turang wound up on a
Kylie Smith pass and notched a kill becoming the 10th player in SNU Volleyball History to earn 1,000 career kills. It was all part of a four set rally by SNU to turn an 8-4 deficit into an eight all set.
As a team, SNU hit .265 as they went for 50 kills to only 15 errors on 132 total attacks. Northwestern played a good match on the other end, but only went for 44 kills to 11 errors on 126 total attacks for a .262 hitting percentage. SNU held a 6-2 advantage in aces as well as a 46-43 advantage in assists and a 60-57 advantage in digs. The Rangers had five blocks to the Storm's two.
It was a fast paced, action packed, heavy hitting first set as both teams came out firing in a back-and-forth set. SNU would come away with 21 kills to five errors, hitting .314 in the set, while Northwestern had 17 kills to only two errors, coming away with a .333 hitting percentage in the set.
It was a back-and-forth first set all the way to a 20-20 tie. SNU went on to score five of the next six points to take a 24-21 lead, but Northwestern rallied for three straight points to even the match at 24. The two teams exchanged points before back-to-back kills by Turang gave SNU the first set at 27-25.
In set two, it was all Northwestern early on as they took advantage of SNU errors and jumped out to a 6-1 lead. SNU chipped away throughout the set, continuously getting points here and there to cut the deficit down. Down 14-12, the Crimson Storm scored seven of the next eight points to suddenly take a 20-14 lead. The Rangers cut it down to three, but the momentum had already swung as SNU closed the set, winning it 25-19 and taking a key 2-0 lead.
The third set was a battle for both squads as both teams fought throughout the set. With the Crimson Storm leading 19-17, Northwestern went on a five point rally and looked to be in complete control at 22-19. However, Southern Nazarene responded with a five point rally of their own to storm back and lead 24-22 thanks in part to brilliant serving from freshman
Logan Matthews.
Northwestern cut it to one and tried to extend the match, but sophomore
Kayla Thomas called game with a kill to finish it off at 25-23 and give the Crimson Storm a sweep over the Rangers.
Turang was outstanding, going for 17 kills and hitting .361 in the match, while Thomas added 13 kills. Sophomore
Meagan Ellis had nine kills while Smith had 41 assists and six kills. Matthews finished with three service aces including the huge ones in the late part of the final set
Defensively, Matthews had 19 digs while Turang added 18 in a match where the SNU defense was excellent all evening. Four different Storm players had blocks in Thomas, Ellis, Smith, and senior
Makenna Hunter.
SNU moves back to .500 at 14-14 overall as well as 6-6 in GAC play. The Crimson Storm will go back on the road on Tuesday as they take the short trip to Ada to do battle with East Central beginning at 7 PM.
