MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The Southern Nazarene University volleyball team made an emphasis to improve on their serving from Friday night's match, and they did just that in a 3-0 sweep against Southern Arkansas on Saturday morning. SNU heads home from the Arkansas road trip 2-0 and will look to carry that momentum next weekend when they host two more Arkansas schools inside the Sawyer Center.
The Crimson Storm (16-7, 6-3 GAC) only committed four service errors inside the W.T. Watson gymnasium after firing off a season-high 17 last night in Monticello, and that resulted in 10 service aces for head coach
Kevin Ingram and company. Although the Muleriders (2-18, 0-9 GAC) were pretty good at the net tallying eight team blocks, the Storm defense was excellent as they allowed just two service aces. Although the Crimson Storm didn't have the best offensive performance, they made up for it with their defense, holding SAU to a .121 hitting percentage for the match.
Bailee Turang led the way for Southern Nazarene with 11 kills on a .329 hitting percentage to go along with a game-high four aces.
Kylie Smith had another solid performance for SNU as she tallied 32 assists to go along with five kills and an ace.
Kayla Thomas notched six kills to go along with four block assists.
Grace Miracle added five kills off the Storm bench while
Sunny Batschelett,
Meagan Ellis, and
Bailey Grimes each tallied four.
Southern Nazarene came out in the first set a little sluggish as they hit just .067 and had 12 total errors in the frame. Southern Arkansas jumped to an early 12-7 lead before the Storm ripped off six straight points to take the 13-12. That run seemed to settle SNU as they later pushed their lead to 21-17 and closed the frame on a kill from Thomas to take a 1-0 lead.
The Muleriders fired back in the second set by jumping out to a 4-1 lead before SNU responded on a 6-2 run to take a 7-6 advantage. A kill from Miracle later in the stanza gave the Storm a 15-9 advantage, before SAU went on a 9-3 run to tie the frame 18-18. Just when it looked like the Muleriders might steal one, SNU closed the second set on a 4-0 run to take a big 2-0 lead.
It was all Southern Nazarene in the third set as they hit .308 and tallied six of their 10 aces. After the Muleriders picked up a kill to cut their deficit to 11-9, the Storm ripped off a 13-1 run to increase their lead to 22-12 and it was all she wrote from there. SNU closed the match to win their sixth match on the road this season.
Southern Nazarene is back in action next weekend with a pair of home matches against Arkansas Tech and Harding. The Storm host the Golden Suns first next Friday at 4:00 before battling the Lady Bisons on Saturday morning at 11:00 a.m.
