BETHANY - A thunderous attack all evening long propelled the Southern Nazarene volleyball team to their third straight win as they swept past Newman, 25-21, 25-13, 25-20, on Tuesday evening at The Sawyer Center.
SNU closes their home stand by going a perfect 3-0 and have now won five of their last six matches.
The Storm were excellent all night as they finished with 51 kills to only 14 errors for a season-high .378 hitting percentage. Defensively, they held the Jets to only 26 kills to go with 10 errors and a .182 hitting percentage.
Southern Nazarene got off to a shaky start in the first set as a slew of early errors gave Newman an early 13-9 advantage. However, with the score at 14-11, SNU flipped a switch and began dominating at the net, scoring nine of the next 11 points to surge ahead, 20-16. Newman got it down to two points, but the trio of junior
Bailee Turang, senior
Makenna Hunter, and sophomore
Kayla Thomas closed out the set, 25-21, for the early lead.
Despite seven errors in the first set, SNU still finished with 19 kills and a .343 hitting percentage.
The Storm took it to an entirely new level in set two as they were unstoppable, going for 18 kills and only one error on 29 attacks for a red-hot .586 hitting percentage. Hunter was one of the focal points in the set, going for six kills while Thomas added four as SNU dominated from start to finish for a 25-13 win and a 2-0 lead.
Newman looked to bounce back in set three, jumping out to a 13-10 lead in the early goings, but the Storm responded with an eight point rally thanks in part to three service aces by freshman
Logan Matthews. The Jets could not recover as SNU was too strong, closing the match 25-20, and earning the victory in straight sets.
Turang led the way with 12 kills, but the middle blockers were the story on this night as Hunter finished with 11 kills and a .500 hitting percentage while Thomas went for 10 kills and a .450 hitting percentage. Sophomore
Meagan Ellis was also terrific with 10 kills and a .400 hitting percentage. Junior
Kylie Smith was excellent in her passing with 44 assists on the night, including 16 each in the first two sets. Matthews finished with six of SNU's 11 total service aces while Turang added two.
Defensively, Matthews led teh charge with 15 digs as Turang added 10 and Ellis picked up nine. Thomas had the long block of the night.
Southern Nazarene moved to 11-9 overall and will shift focus back to conference play. They will go on the Arkadelphia road trip beginning on Friday as they battle Ouachita Baptist at 6 PM.
