BETHANY - Playing a team who has struggled can be difficult in sports, and on Tuesday night, that proved true for the Southern Nazarene University volleyball team. Fortunately for SNU, another long held truth of sports is the effect of momentum, and SNU made big plays at the right times to use the momentum they built off the home crowd to take a four set win.

SNU (10-4, 2-0 GAC) battled fiercely to take a 30-28 win in the third set after the teams split the first two sets, and that energy permeated the Crimson Storm lineup in the fourth frame as they polished off the Southeastern Oklahoma State University Savage Storm (1-10, 0-2 GAC) 3-1.

SNU used an early 5-1 run in the first set to take a 6-4 lead. Southeastern tied the set at six, but the Crimson Storm took command with an 11-3 run to take a 17-9 lead, and they cruised in with a 25-15 set one win. SNU rode the momentum to a 6-2 lead early in the second frame, and though Southeastern whittled the deficit to 11-8, the Crimson Storm still led until the Savage Storm found a long run of their own. Southeastern put together a 13-2 run to take a 21-13 lead, and they squared the match at one set apiece with their own 25-15 set win.

The match turned on an intense third stanza. SNU took an early 7-3 lead, and the Crimson Storm slowly stretched that out to 19-13 late in the set. Southeastern, though, took 10 of the next 14 points to tie things up at 23, and the energy began building in the Sawyer Center. SNU earned the first three set point chances in the set, but each time Southeastern managed to hold on and tie the score. The Savage Storm got a set point chance at 27-26, but a Bailey Grimes kill tied things up at 27. On their fifth set point opportunity of the set, SNU's Madeline Lynch rifled an ace that ended the period in a 30-28 set win for the Crimson Storm and that wave of momentum put extra wind in the sails of SNU, while simultaneously deflating the Southeastern bench.

SNU roared out of the gates in the fourth set to take a 10-2 lead, and another 6-2 spurt gave the Crimson Storm a 16-5 advantage. Southeastern mounted one last surge, closing the gap to six points at 19-13, but SNU finished things off by taking six of the final eight points to claim the set 25-15 and the match 3-1.

Bailee Turang notched a team leading 13 kills in the match, and she moved into fourth on the SNU all-time kills list, passing Taryn Steele and finishing the match with a career total of 1,241 kills. She is now in pursuit of Lyndi Carlile (1999-01, 03) who occupies third on the list at 1,318 career kills. 

Grimes added 12 kills and five blocks, and Kayla Thomas was also in double figures for SNU with 11 kills. Turang had her sixth double-double of the year, Meagan Ellis added 21 digs, Logan Matthews had 12 digs, and Kylie Smith dished out 41 assists and completed the double-double with 11 digs. Smith also added seven kills in the match.

SNU will hit the road for their next three matches, first heading to Alva, Oklahoma on Thursday night. There, they will take on the Rangers of Northwestern Oklahoma State University (9-6, 1-1 GAC) at 7 p.m.