BETHANY – Back at home for the first time since late January, Southern Nazarene's volleyball team looked comfortable on Thursday night. Behind their home crowd, SNU cruised to a 3-1 victory (20-25, 25-18, 25-16, 25-16) inside the Sawyer Center over Southeastern Oklahoma State, which snapped a four-game losing skid.
The Crimson Storm (3-4, 3-4 GAC) dropped the opening set of the night but caught fire in the next three games as they held the Savage Storm (0-3, 0-3 GAC) to under 20 points in those closing sets. As a team, SNU hit .283 on the offensive side of the net with six aces and only 13 total errors. They were even more dominant on the defensive side of the net as they tallied a season-high 12 blocks while holding Southeastern to a .097 hitting clip. SNU recorded two more digs than the Savage Storm with 55 while also dishing out four more assists as team with 43 on the night.
Southern Nazarene was led by senior
Meagan Ellis who recorded her second double-double of the season. She finished the match with a season-high 14 kills and 12 digs to go along with a .278 hitting percentage. Joining Ellis with double-digit kills was freshman
Whitney Bowie who continues to shine in her first season with the program. She delivered 10 kills on the offensive side and was a lethal force on the defensive front, racking up a career-high six total blocks.
Sophomore setter
Breckynn Myers had an excellent outing as she dished out 39 assists while digging 12 balls and chipping in with three kills.
Sunny Batschelett commanded the middle to the tune of seven kills, four digs and four blocks, while
Grace Miracle finished with six kills and three digs.
Shantalle Demirjian posted five kills and a career-high six blocks as well for SNU, while libero
Logan Matthews finished with a team-high 16 digs.
Isabella Mitchell came off the SNU bench and recorded a couple of service aces for the Storm.
Southeastern Oklahoma State came out red hot in the opening frame as they hit .410 as a team and lit up the scoreboard with 19 kills as a team. SNU did an excellent job combatting the Savage Storm attack with a .389 hitting clip, but Southeastern prevailed 25-20 to take the early 1-0 lead. In the second stanza, head coach
Kevin Ingram lit a fire under his team, specifically on the defensive end as the Crimson Storm tallied five blocks. They hit .233 as a team and held Southeastern to a .000 percentage as they tied the match 1-1 with a 25-18 set victory.
The final two games would see more of Southern Nazarene's outstanding defense as they held Southeastern to a negative hitting percentage in both of the sets. SNU's five service aces proved to be too much as they took the 2-1 set lead after walloping the Savage Storm 25-16 in the third. In the fourth set, SNU forced more errors out of SEOSU than kills as they hit .286 in the set and cruised to another 25-16 set victory and clinching the match.
Southern Nazarene will take a quick break from GAC play on Saturday afternoon, as they make the short drive to Oklahoma Christian on Saturday afternoon. First serve with the Eagles inside the Nest is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.
