WEATHERFORD, Okla. – Southern Nazarene's volleyball team was back in action on Thursday night in the Pioneer Cellular Event Center looking to complete the season sweep of Southwestern Oklahoma State. SNU couldn't get over their three-game losing skid as they fell 3-0 (16-25, 19-25, 22-25) to SWOSU.
The Bulldogs (3-2) were red-hot on their home floor as they finished the match with a .362 hitting clip, while the Crimson Storm (2-4) came in with a .197 mark on the offensive end of the net. SWOSU tallied 49 kills to 37 for SNU while both teams only had one block on the defensive end. The Storm's 14 total errors proved costly as the Bulldogs committed just seven.
Meagan Ellis led the way for the Southern Nazarene offensive attack as she finished with a season-high 11 kills to go along with nine digs. She was the only Storm attacker with double-figure kills as
Sunny Batschelett,
Shantalle Demirjian, and
Whitney Bowie each tallied six kills for SNU. Setter
Breckynn Myers dished out 31 assists while digging eight balls and
Logan Matthews recorded a team-high 13 digs as well.
Jacy Braziel chipped in four kills and five digs for SNU on the night.
Southern Nazarene was slow out of the gate in the opening set as they hit .059 and registered just eight kills. Southwestern Oklahoma State came out guns blazing on their home floor as they hit .364 in the opening set and put SNU in a 1-0 hole after winning the frame 25-16. The Bulldogs offense only got hotter in the second stanza as they hit a match-high .452 and made life difficult on the SNU defense. The Crimson Storm battled however as they bounced back to hit .258 and register 11 kills and a couple of aces. After a back and forth affair, SWOSU broke through and took the set 25-19 to put the Storm in a 2-0 hole.
The third set featured the best offensive frame for SNU in the match with 18 kills but the Bulldogs countered that with 18 kills of their own. SNU hit .250 while SWOSU hit .308 which resulted in the closest frame of the night. After a 19-19 tie, SWOSU broke through with a couple of points to push it to 21-19 and later 24-20. The Storm got a couple of straight points but SWOSU closed out SNU to take the match 25-22 in straight sets.
Southern Nazarene will finally return home to the Sawyer Center next Thursday night as they battle Southeastern Oklahoma State. It will be SNU's first home match since their season opener on January 27. First serve with the Savage Storm is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. inside the Sawyer Center.
