BETHANY - The Southern Nazarene volleyball team picked up their second straight GAC victory, holding off a game Arkansas-Monticello squad, earning a thrilling five set win over the Cotton Blossoms on Saturday afternoon at The Sawyer Center.
SNU finished with 72 total kills to 24 errors on 174 total attacks for a .276 hitting percentage. On the other side, the Cotton Blossoms had 54 kills to 19 errors on 167 total attacks for a .210 hitting percentage. UAM had 13 blocks to SNU's three as well as seven service aces, but the Crimson Storm had the advantage in assists at 64-47 and digs at 88-66.
SNU got off to a great start in the first set, going for 17 kills and only three errors for a .368 hitting percentage. SNU had a 5-4 lead and proceeded to go on a 10-2 run to race out to a 15-6 lead in the set and eventually increased that lead to 19-9. UAM would make a run to get it inside seven point, but SNU remained in control and earned a 25-17 victory.
It was more of the same in set two as SNU went for 15 kills to only three errors while hitting .400 in the set. It was all SNU thanks in part to eight point rally to take a 19-8 lead. Arkansas-Monticello got a little spark towards the end of the set, getting it down to six points, but SNU finished it off for another 25-17 victory and a 2-0 lead.
However, that little spark towards the end of the second set seemed to give the Cotton Blossoms a boost as they would jump on the Crimson Storm early on in third and fourth sets as they came-from-behind and and evened the match at two a piece, forcing a fifth set. UAM got big plays from their middles while forcing SNU into 15 errors throughout the two sets.
It was an even set through the first half of the fifth with the Cotton Blossoms holding an 8-7 lead on the switch. SNU scored five of the next six points to push ahead 12-9. Kills by sophomore
Meagan Ellis, junior
Bailee Turang, and sophomore
Kayla Thomas closed the match and gave SNU the big conference win.
Ellis had a huge day, going for 19 kills on .462 hitting while Turang added 17 kills. Senior
Makenna Hunter was outstanding with 16 kills on a .696 hitting percentage while Thomas went for 14 kills. Junior
Kylie Smith had 58 assists to go with five kills while Ellis had a pair of service aces.
Defensively, freshman
Logan Matthews had 22 digs while Turang added 18. Ellis had 16 digs, senior
Makayla Shonamon had 12 digs, and Smith added 11.
Southern Nazarene moves to 13-12 overall and 5-4 in the GAC. They will take a little time off before returning to action on Friday as they head to Searcy, Ark. to take on Harding at 6 PM.
