BETHANY, Okla.—The tough stretch to begin Great America Conference play continues for Southern Nazarene as the Crimson Storm fell in straight sets (25-23, 25-13, 25-20) to No. 18 Oklahoma Baptist on Tuesday night inside the Sawyer Center.
The Storm (4-7, 0-4 GAC) put up a strong fight in the first set, pushing the 18th ranked Bison (9-2, 3-1 GAC) all the way to the end of the set. They cut the deficit to 24-23, but could not grab that last point to extend the set, ultimately falling 25-23. The Storm spread the ball around nicely in that first set, collecting 15 kills. Breckynn Myers set the offense up for success, tallying 14 assists on those 15 kills. She would finish the match with a double-double, collecting 26 assists and 10 digs.
The second set would be all OBU. They rattled off six consecutive points to build a 10-5 lead and never looked back. Their defense stifled the Crimson Storm, who managed just 8 kills and 9 errors in the frame leading to a -.028 hitting percentage in the set.
Despite trailing a top-ranked team like Oklahoma Baptist two games to none, Southern Nazarene responded well in the third set and showed some fight. Trailing by as many as 6 points in the set, the Crimson Storm fought to cut the deficit to just one point at 18-17. The Bison proved why they are a top-ranked team, though, rattling off 6 of the next 7 points to push it to match point. They would finish off the Storm 25-20 on a Taneyah Brown kill.
Meagan Ellis, who recently reached the 1,000 career kills milestone, added to that total with 7 kills in the match. She was joined by Sunny Batschelett and Whitney Bowie who each came away with 7 kills of their own.
Four different Storm members finished with double-digit digs in the match including Madeline Lynch (14), Meagan Ellis (11), Grace Miracle (10), and Breckynn Myers (10).
It is a quick turnaround for the Storm as they look to get back to their winning ways on Thursday with a road trip to Weatherford to take on Southwestern Oklahoma State. The Storm own a 13-8 advantage over the Bulldogs all-time, but were defeated in three sets in the last match in March. First serve is set for 7:00 p.m. in Weatherford.
