BETHANY – After taking a 2-0 lead on Wednesday night against East Central, the Southern Nazarene volleyball team couldn't put the pieces together to close out the match as they fell in five sets (25-21, 25-15, 17-25, 19-25, 13-15) to ECU inside the Sawyer Center.
 
It was smooth sailing for the Crimson Storm (3-6, 3-5 GAC) through the opening two frames as they racked up seven blocks to put the pressure on the Tigers (3-4, 3-4 GAC). But ECU never quit fighting as they amassed 10 total blocks in the third and fourth sets to get right back into the match. Both teams were pretty even across the board with kills, errors, and hitting percentage as it was the 17 blocks for the Tigers that pushed them over the edge.
 
SNU had 11 blocks and eight service aces, but had nine service errors as well, compared to just five for East Central. The Tigers had 88 digs to the Storm's 81 and dished out three more assists than SNU with 48. Shantalle Demirjian led the Crimson Storm offensive attack with a career-high 12 kills on a .250 clip to go along with three blocks and a couple of digs. Joining Demirjian with double-digit kills was Meagan Ellis, whose hot streak continued Wednesday, with 11 kills and 12 digs.
 
40 assists were dished out by sophomore setter Breckynn Myers, her fourth 40+ assist match of the season, as she also tallied 10 digs and five kills. Libero Logan Matthews was all over the floor on the defensive end as she finished with a game-high 32 digs, a season-high and one off her career-high. Whitney Bowie registered nine kills and a career-high six blocks while Sunny Batschelett chipped in with eight kills and two blocks as well. Grace Miracle added four kills for the Storm attack on Wednesday night.
 
Despite hitting under .100 for the opening set, Southern Nazarene's defense was the vocal point out of the gate. They held East Central to a -.056 hitting clip as the Tigers committed more errors than kills. The Tigers had six blocks in the opening set to stay in it, but SNU closed them out 25-21 to take the early lead.
 
The second stanza was the best offensive set for the Crimson Storm as they hit .314 and were sharp on the defensive side of the net as well. They had two service aces to go with five blocks as they crusied to a 25-15 set win to jump out to a 2-0 lead in the match. ECU wasn't going down without a fight as they registered four blocks in the third set and held SNU to a .022 hitting clip to take the frame 25-17 to make it 2-1.

In the fourth set, the Storm had four aces but again the Tiger defense was the key as they racked up six more blocks to go along with a .250 hitting clip and 13 kills. They edged the Storm 25-19 to force the concluding fifth set. The final stanza was the most competitive on either side. The Tigers produced nine kills to SNU's six as they narrowly closed out head coach Kevin Ingram and company 15-13 to hand the Storm its second straight loss.
 
Southern Nazarene will be back in action next Wednesday night at home against Northwestern Oklahoma State on "Dig Pink" night in the Sawyer Center. First serve with the Rangers is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.