ST. CHARLES, Mo. — Southern Nazarene opened its 2018 season with a pair of 3-0 losses as it fell to Lindenwood (26-24, 25-19, 25-18) before losing to Missouri S&T (25-20, 25-16, 26-24) in the second match Friday.
 
Megan Ellis led the way in the opener with 10 kills while Kayla Thomas had nine. Lindenwood held the Crimson Storm to a .093 attack percentage and SNU had nine attacking errors. SNU also had 10 service errors.
 
Ellis added five digs and three aces as the Storm had seven aces in the first match. Kylie Smith recorded 23 assists and three digs. Logan Matthews and Bailee Turang each had 11 digs while Bailey Grimes recorded the Storm's lone block.
 
SNU looked to be cruising to a first set win after taking a 19-13 lead. The Lions though went on a 10-2 run to lead 23-21. The Storm rallied back to tie it at 24, but Lindenwood scored the final two points to take the 1-0 lead in the set. The Lions built an early lead in the second set and held SNU off before pulling away in the later stages of the third with a 13-3 run.
 
Smith dished out 33 assists and added six digs and two blocks against Missouri S&T. SNU had six blocks as a team while Makenna Hunter had four and Thomas had two. Nearly half of Smith's assists went to Turang as she had 16 kills and hit .353. She was just two digs shy of a double-double with eight. Ellis was just two kills short of a double-double as she had eight to go with 14 digs. Logan Matthews also had nine digs.
 
The Storm hit .203 (40-15-118), but the Miners hit .325 (49-11-117) and matched SNU in blocks. S&T also totaled 56 digs while the Storm had 46.
 
The Miners led from start to finish in the first two sets, but the two had 10 ties and three lead changes in the third set. SNU led 12-9 early in the set, but S&T chipped away and eventually led 22-20. The Crimson Storm tied it at 22 on back-to-back kills from Turang and Ellis, but the Miners scored two straight to take match point. Thomas cut it to 24-23 with a kills before Turang tied it at 24. S&T put it away with the final two points as it moved to 2-0 on the year.