RUSSELLVILLE, Ark.—Southern Nazarene found themselves in a tough matchup with the first place Golden Suns of Arkansas Tech and gave them all they could handle, but eventually fell in four sets (27-25, 26-28, 25-20, 25-22) on Saturday afternoon.
The Crimson Storm (5-10, 0-7 GAC) have been in the midst of an extremely difficult stretch, facing off against the top-four teams in the Great American Conference in their last four GAC matchups. The league-leading Golden Suns (13-3, 7-0 GAC) expected to roll over Southern Nazarene, but found themselves in a dog-fight in all four sets of the match.
The Storm could have dropped their heads early, finding themselves down 8-1 in the blink of an eye in that first set. Instead, they slowly chipped away and eventually tied the set at 23. A couple of points later, the Storm found themselves at set point with a chance to steal that first set. It was not meant to be, though, as Arkansas Tech took the final three points of the set in a wild 27-25 first frame.
It was the Grace Miracle show in set two. She exploded for 8 kills in the set. She finished the match with 11 kills, a new career-high. The set appeared to be over when Arkansas Tech ran off eight consecutive points to push the frame to set point at 24-18. The Storm showed a lot of moxy, though, again refusing to hang their heads. They would rattle off six straight points of their own, fending off set-point and forcing another extended set. After finding themselves battling set point two more times, Southern Nazarene continued to fight it off. They eventually strung ttogether their own three point run, kickstarted by a Miracle kill, on the way to a 28-26 win.
The Storm continued to battle in the third and fourth sets, but Arkansas Tech would prove why they owned the top spot in the conference, fending off a pesky Storm squad in each of the last two sets to earn the win.
Along with Miracle, Whitney Bowie also had an excellent offensive afternoon. She tallied 14 kills on an incredible .462 hitting percentage, the second highest percentage she has posted this season (.500 vs. Northwestern Oklahoma State).
Breckynn Myers notched yet another double-double, her third in the last five matches. She racked up 39 assists to go along with 14 digs.
A brutal GAC stretch finally lightens up a bit for the Storm next weekend as SNU returns home to host Southern Arkansas on Friday, followed by a Saturday meeting with Arkansas-Monticello. The Storm have won seven straight matches over Southern Arkansas, including four straight sweeps. They will try to keep that streak alive and earn that first GAC win on Friday. First serve is set for 4:00 p.m. inside the Sawyer Center.
