ALVA, Okla.—Make it a season-high four straight wins for the Southern Nazarene Volleyball team, who earned their first sweep of the year (25-18, 25-21, 25-17) after taking down Northwestern Oklahoma State on the road on Tuesday night.
The Crimson Storm (11-12, 5-8 GAC) got their revenge on the Rangers (9-18, 4-9 GAC) who earned a sweep over SNU back on Sept. 21. Southern Nazarene has grown into a different team over the past few weeks, though, rebounding from an 0-7 start in conference play to win 5 of their last 6 GAC matches.
SNU was nearly unstoppable on the offensive end, hitting a season-high .333 for the match. It is the second time this year the Storm have hit over .300 as a team, also doing so in the four-set win over Ouachita Baptist back on Oct. 23.
The offensive leader was Sunny Batschelett, who piled on 18 kills in just three sets. In the previous five-set match with Southeastern, Batschelett notched a career-high 17 kills. She more than outdid herself by surpassing that total in just three sets on Tuesday night.
The first four points of the match went to Northwestern. After that, SNU controlled everything. They fought back and eventually took a 14-13 lead. Later in the set, SNU rattled off six straight points to close out the set.
The Crimson Storm faced a 9-6 deficit in the second set, but rebounded with 4 of the next 5 points to tie the set at 10 a side. They would continue that positive momentum through the second half of the set, turning it into a four point lead and a 25-21 set win.
Set three was all SNU. They scored the first six points of the set and never looked back. The Storm never trailed in the set and easily took a 25-17 win in the final set of their first sweep of the season.
Whitney Bowie was second on the team with 9 kills in the match. She once again was extremely efficient with her chances, hitting .438 in the match. She has now hit at least .333 in six straight matches and is up to a .298 hitting percentage on the season.
Breckynn Myers was just one dig shy of a double-double, finishing with 40 assists and 9 digs. She also added 3 aces, half of the team's 6 in the match.
The win was more than just revenge for the Storm. They have now broken a three-way tie for seventh in the GAC and have sole possession of that spot. It is a brutal three-game stretch to close the season for SNU, so having the one game advantage could prove huge. The Storm close the season with Southwestern Oklahoma State, East Central, and Oklahoma Baptist, all teams who find themselves in the top-four in the Great American Conference standings. First up will be a rematch with Southwestern at home on Thursday, Nov. 4. First serve is set for 7:00 p.m. inside the Sawyer Center.
