BETHANY – Southern Nazarene's volleyball team closed out the regular season on Tuesday night with a battle against their rival Oklahoma Baptist inside the Sawyer Center. The No. 5 ranked Bison were too much for SNU as they fell 3-0 (24-26, 21-25, 22-25).
The Crimson Storm played a solid match across the board as they hit .203 and had just 12 errors all night. SNU racked up nine blocks and six service aces while forcing 18 turnovers out of the undefeated Bison. OBU's offense was just too powerful as they swung .242 with nine blocks as well. They racked up 59 digs compared to 47 for the Storm while OBU dished out 46 assists and SNU recorded 35.
Meagan Ellis led the Storm attack with a double-double featuring a team-high 10 kills and 10 digs on an impressive .357 hitting clip. Freshman
Amelia Strebeck had her best outing of her young career as she came off the bench to hit a team-high .444 and rack up five kills and two blocks.
Shantalle Demirjian and
Jacy Braziel each finished with five kills as Demirjian recorded three blocks as well.
Junior
Grace Miracle came off the SNU bench to add four kills while
Whitney Bowie finished the match with four kills and three blocks on the defensive side of the net for the Storm.
Sunny Batschelett chipped in with three kills and a couple of blocks.
Jessie Fouts led the way with 18 assists and five digs while
Logan Matthews stuffed the stat sheet with 15 digs and a team-high three aces.
Southern Nazarene got off to a dream start as they opened the match on a 10-1 run in the opening set. After a quick timeout, the No. 5 Bison got back on track and finished the set hitting .244. OBU cranked up the defense, holding SNU to a .171 hitting clip. After a back-and-forth finish in the first set, the Bison squeaked out a 26-24 set win to take the 1-0 lead.
From there, Oklahoma Baptist kept cranking up the intensity. They hit .324 in the second stanza, but the Crimson Storm responded with a .290 hitting mark to go with a couple of aces and three blocks to stay in it. The Bison got the points down the stretch they needed as they won the second frame 25-21 to take a 2-0 lead. But SNU never quit. They recorded a few more aces and blocks in the third set and held OBU to a match-low .184 percentage. Oklahoma Baptist's defense flexed their muscles as they held the Storm to a .174 mark and as they took the final set 25-22.
Southern Nazarene finishes the regular season with a 3-8 record, 3-7 in the GAC, and will enter the Great American Conference Tournament next week as the No. 5 seed in the Oklahoma Division. They will travel to Ada to take on No. 4 seed East Central next Tuesday night.
