POINT LOMA, Calif. - The Southern Nazarene University volleyball team opened their season on Friday at the difficult Seaside Classic, hosted by Point Loma Nazarene University. The tournament features a strong field, and when the sun had set on competition on day one of the event, SNU found themselves even in the tournament.
SNU (1-1) opened their season with a 3-1 (25-23, 25-23, 17-25, 25-21) win over Concordia University-Irvine (Calif.) (0-1), but they fell in their second match to San Francisco State University (Calif.) 3-0 (20-25, 18-25, 24-26) to finish the day with a split.
SNU played well right out of the gate in the first match, attacking the ball at better than a .250 clip as a team in three of the four sets against Concordia. The Crimson Storm put down at least a dozen kills as a team in each of the four sets in the match, and twice held the Eagles below the .200 mark in hitting percentage.
In a finish befitting a match between two good teams, however, SNU had to battle to close the win out in the fourth set. SNU hit the ball well in the set, pounding 13 kills and making only three errors while hitting .313; but CUI finished strong as well, pushing SNU to near the limit, bu hitting .395 themselves in the final set.
SNU had a balanced offensive attack in the match with Bailey Turang (18),
Kayla Thomas (12), and
Meagan Ellis (10) each reaching double figures in kills. Kylis Smith handed out 47 assists in the match, Turang completed the double-double with 18 digs, and
Logan Matthews added a dozen digs herself.
In the second match, the Crimson Storm had trouble keeping up the hot-hitting, and San Francisco State took advantage. The Gators held SNU to 19 kills as a team in the match, and SFSU took the win in straight sets to close the day.
Turang led the way with seven kills in the match, and Thomas added 17 more assists. Matthews (16) Turang (10), and Ellis (10) each all reached double-figures in digs in the match.
The Crimson Storm will face two more stiff tests as they wrap up the Classic on Saturday, taking on Cal-State East Bay (0-2) at 10:30 a.m., before rounding out the tournament against the host PLNU Sea Lions (1-0) at 3 p.m.
