BETHANY, Okla.—A tough five set loss (25-14, 23-25, 22-25, 25-23, 10-15) to East Central on Senior Night makes things a bit more complicated in the Great American Conference tournament race as three times now sit tied as they vie for two spots in the tournament.
Along with Southern Nazarene's loss, Northwestern Oklahoma State fell to Southeastern Oklahoma State on Tuesday night, creating a three-way tie for seventh place. Southern Nazarene (11-14, 5-10 GAC) split the season series with both teams while Southeastern took both matchups over Northwestern.
Tuesday night looked promising for the Storm in the first set as they jumped all over East Central (14-13, 10-5 GAC). SNU jumped out to a 14-3 advantage as they cruised to a 25-14 set one victory. They smashed the ball at a .345 clip during that first frame.
East Central, who has now clinched the No. 5 seed in the GAC tournament, regrouped in the second set and the match would be just about as tight as one can be from then on out. Neither team held a lead larger than three points in the second frame. The Storm would gain a 19-16 advantage and later pushed the score to 23-21. The Tigers' Darcie Kaiser took over from there, though, tallying 3 kills and a block assist in the next 4 points to lead ECU to a 25-23 win.
Southern Nazarene trailed for the majority of set three, but made a late push. Facing set point at 24-19, SNU rattled off three straight points, but were finally put away on another ECU block.
Needing to come away with a win to force a deciding fifth set, the Storm found themselves in another dog fight in the fourth game. After rattling off 5 straight points that gave them a 21-17 advantage, SNU conceded a 6-1 run that put East Central just two points away from a match win. Digging deep, the Crimson Storm again rattled off three straight points to secure the set and force a fifth frame.
Unfortunately for the Storm they struggled in the fifth set, hitting a match low .069. The Tigers were able to control the majority of the set, jumping out to an 8-3 lead and maintaining that five point advantage to a 15-10 win.
It was another career night for Sunny Batschelett who notched her first ever 20 kill match. She would also add 6 blocks to go along with those kills.
Senior Grace Miracle had a superb night in her final match at the Sawyer Center as well, collecting her second straight double-double with 11 kills and a season-high 17 digs.
Breckynn Myers also finished with a double-double and a season-high in digs. She totaled 46 assists to go along with her 19 digs.
Senior Jacy Braziel also put on a show in her final match at the Sawyer Center. She finished with a season-high 8 kills and 2 blocks.
SNU's third senior, Logan Matthews, reached 20 digs for the second time this season while also adding 4 assists.
SNU's final senior, Meagan Ellis, the latest Crimson Storm member to reach the 1,000 career kill milestone, added a pair of kills and 4 digs on Tuesday night.
The Crimson Storm have one final game in the regular season as they continue making a push for the postseason, but it will not be easy. Southern Nazarene must travel to Shawnee on Thursday to take on nationally ranked Oklahoma Baptist. The Bison swept SNU in Bethany back in September. First serve is set for 7:00 p.m. in Shawnee.
