BETHANY - The Southern Nazarene volleyball team started their three game home stand off with a bang as they swept past the East Central Tigers in GAC play, 25-11, 25-17, 25-23, on Thursday evening at the Swayer Center.
It was an impressive showing on both sides of the net as the SNU attack finished with 44 kills to only 15 errors for a hitting percentage .274. Their defense was clutch as well, holding the Tigers to only 25 kills and forcing them into 22 errors and an .030 hitting percentage.
SNU came out on fire in the first set, scoring nine of 10 points to turn an 8-6 lead into a 17-7 advantage. The Storm hit a red hot .379 as a team with 15 kills to four errors while holding East Central to only five kills and nine errors for a -.133 hitting percentage. Junior
Bailee Turang had seven kills in the first set alone with her hitting percentage at a blistering .545 as SNU won the first set convincingly, 25-11.
It was more and a back-and-forth affair for the first half of the second set as East Central tried to make a move, but another huge run from SNU, this time scoring four straight points to take a 17-11 lead, proved to be the difference. The Storm had four blocks in the second set as they found themselves ahead 2-0 going into the the third set.
This time it was a different tune as the Tigers looked to get back into the match, jumping out to an 8-2 while taking advantage of four SNU errors. Eventually, East Central increased their lead to 13-5, forcing the Storm to take their second timeout of the set.
The break lit a fire as the Storm found their rhythm again, scoring eight of the next nine points to pull within one at 14-13. East Central pushed the lead out to 16-13 before a six point rally surged SNU ahead 19-16. The Tigers remained poised and fought back to take a 21-20 lead, but it was too much Crimson Storm on this night as they battled back to tie it at 23 and finished the match off with a kill from sophomore
Kayla Thomas and a game-winning service ace from freshman
Grace Miracle.
Turang was terrific with 15 kills to go with a .314 hitting percentage while senior
Makenna Hunter added 12 kills and a .333 hitting percentage. Thomas added nine kills to also go with a .333 hitting percentage while junior
Kylie Smith had 40 assists on the night. Freshman
Logan Matthews had two of the Storm's seven service aces.
Defensively, SNU did not allow a service ace and were led by Matthews with 14 digs while Turang added eight. Sophomore
Mikayla Emmert, who beautifully sang the National Anthem to open the festivities, had a solo block as well as an assist.
The Crimson Storm move to 9-9 overall and 3-2 in the GAC. It is their 12th straight win over East Central and their first sweep of the Tigers since 2016.
SNU will take a break from conference play on Saturday as they welcome in Dallas Baptist for a non-conference match-up scheduled at 11 AM in the Sawyer Center.
