BETHANY, Okla.—Southern Nazarene saw their seven game winning streak come to an end on Friday, but not without a fight as the Crimson Storm gave the top team in the GAC, Harding, all they could handle in a fight-set battle (23-25, 25-20, 25-18, 23-25, 15-10) on Senior Day.
Both teams came into the contest riding winning streaks. Southern Nazarene (13-10, 7-4 GAC) had won seven matches in a row, while Harding (22-1, 11-0 GAC) held an impressive 19 game streak. That Harding streak has now reached 20, but not without being pushed to the brink as for the first time in this run and in Great American Conference play, Harding was forced to play a fifth set.
The Storm came out swinging and matched the Bisons blow-for-blow in the first set. The teams continually traded leads and found themselves tied at 20, 21, 22, and 23. SNU finally came out on top in set one 25-23 after back-to-back Harding errors.
The Bisons responded in a big way, taking each of the next two sets. After gaining a 5-4 lead in set two and a 4-3 lead in set three, they never trailed. The Storm cut a six point deficit in half in game two, but that was as close as they ever got as Harding went on to take set two 25-20 and set three 25-18.
As they have done all season, the Crimson Storm responded with their backs against the wall. They overcame a 16-11 deficit in the fourth game by not allowing Harding to score back-to-back points for the remainder of the set. Holding a slim 24-23 lead, Southern Nazarene forced a decisive fifth set after a big kill from Sunny Batchelett.
While the fifth set went SNU's way on Thursday, that was not the case on Friday. The set was close early on, but The Storm were unable to ever put together a run in that final set as they only retained serve once. With the score tight at 8-7, Harding rallied for seven of the next ten points to win the final game 15-10.
Sunny Batschelett put together another solid performance with 14 kills and an impressive 6 blocks. She was bested in that category only by senior Bailey Grimes who totaled a season-high 9 blocks to go along with her 6 kills.
Senior Shantalle Demirjian finished with 11 kills and 4 digs. Whitney Bowie also racked up 11 kills and added 6 digs.
Kaley Brubaker continues to pile on to her double-double total with her fourth straight on Friday. She came away with 45 assists and 10 digs. It was also her fourth straight match with at least 40 assists.
Senior Madeline Lynch had another special night defensively. For the third straight match she put up a career-high in digs, surpassing Thursday's total of 33 with 35 on Friday. That total is 11th in single-match history at SNU.
Breckynn Myers was also big defensively, digging out 20 balls of her own, which was a season-high.
The loss drops SNU into fourth place in the Great American Conference standings, one game behind Southwestern Oklahoma State, who they beat in five sets earlier this season. Next up for the Storm is a trip to Ada, Oklahoma to take on East Central. The Tigers got the best of SNU earlier this season in four-sets. The Storm will look for their revenge next Thursday. First serve is set for 7:00 p.m. in Ada.
