ALVA, Okla. – Southern Nazarene's volleyball team was on the road Thursday night for a date with Northwestern Oklahoma State inside the Percefull Fieldhouse. SNU's road trip didn't go as planned as they fell 3-1 (22-25, 25-17, 20-25, 21-25) to NWOSU.
 
Although the Crimson Storm (2-2, 2-2 GAC) recorded a higher hitting percentage than the Rangers (4-1, 2-1 GAC) on Thursday night, they couldn't overcome the Northwestern defense at the net. NWOSU tallied 10 total blocks on the night compared to 5 for SNU. The Storm racked up 65 digs on the night and four service aces. The serving errors played another key factor in the match as SNU's 11 service errors was too much to overcome.
 
Sunny Batschelett had a sensational night for the Crimson Storm as she led the way with a career-high 16 kills on a whopping .500 hitting clip. Joining her with double-digit kills was freshman Whitney Bowie who also recorded a career-high kill mark with 14 on a .276 percentage. Bowie also added three blocks as well. Breckynn Myers tallied 43 assists to go along with 11 digs and four kills for SNU as well.
 
Grace Miracle chipped in with nine kills and 12 digs, while Meagan Ellis finished with seven kills and a team-high 18 digs. Jacy Braziel added five digs while Logan Matthews recorded 15 digs for the Crimson Storm.
 
Both teams came out swinging in the first set as the opening frame was the closest of the four. Southern Nazarene hit .196 while Northwestern hit .208. The Storm had a couple of aces, but SNU's six errors were the culprit as they dropped the first set 25-22 to the Rangers.
 
Head coach Kevin Ingram and company came out in the second stanza and cut their errors in half while turning up the pressure defensively. They held NWOSU to a .086 clip and tied the match 1-1 after winning the set 25-17. Just as things were looking good for SNU in the third set, Northwestern responded with a couple of big aces. They locked down the Storm in the final third of the set to take a 2-1 advantage with a 25-20 set win.
 
SNU needed a response in the fourth to try and push it to five sets, but Northwestern saved their best hitting frame for last. The Rangers hit .281 but SNU countered with their best hitting clip of the match at .303. After a back and forth affair with the Storm racking up 16 kills, the Rangers closed out SNU 25-21 to hand the Storm their second straight loss.
 
Southern Nazarene will travel to Edmond on Friday to play an exhibition match with Central Oklahoma at 6:30 p.m. that will not record stats or count for the team's record. Their next GAC match will be Tuesday, February 23 when they hit the road to Shawnee to face rival Oklahoma Baptist at 7:00 p.m.