BETHANY, Okla.—The volleys just did not fall Southern Nazarene's way as they dropped a grueling five-set match (17-25, 25-20, 22-25, 25-19, 15-10) to Oklahoma Baptist on Tuesday night inside the Sawyer Center.
The teams battled it out all evening, leading to a combined 385 attacks in the match. Southern Nazarene (16-12, 9-6 GAC) swung a season-high 208 attacks on a .178 hitting percentage, while Oklahoma Baptist (18-10, 12-3 GAC) took 177 swings on a .169 hitting percentage.
The service line proved to be a real struggle for the Storm all evening. They committed 11 service errors in the match, while collecting just 4 service aces.
Despite the struggle at the service line, SNU still made life difficult for the Bison defense. Four different Crimson Storm players recorded double-digit kills, as well as a fifth recording 9 kills. Sunny Batschelett led the way with 17 kills, Whitney Bowie totaled 16, Shantalle Demirjian added 15, while Tessa Henry finished with 12 kills. Bailey Grimes added 9, as well. SNU's ability to move the ball around kept the Bison on their toes and forced OBU into using three different setters in the match.
Spreading the ball around that well could not be done without the work of Kaley Brubaker, who finished just one assist shy of a career-high with 58 in the match. She also recorded yet another double-double with 14 digs.
With the number of attacks in the match, it is no surprise that SNU had three more players reach double-digit kills. Madeline Lynch recorded 24, Katelyn Branson earned a career-high 21, and Breckynn Myers dug out 17 balls.
Southern Nazarene took sets one and three to move up 2-1 in the match, but could not earn that final set win to pick up what has become an elusive win over Oklahoma Baptist the past few seasons. The Storm tied the fourth set at 19, but the Bison rattled off the final six points to take set four 25-19 and force a final fifth set.
Mistakes began to mount for SNU in the fifth set. They committed six attack errors, a set error, and a ball-handling error in the final game, giving the Bison 8 points in the shortened final game. Ultimately, this led to OBU sealing the match with a block to win set five 15-10.
The win seals the second seed for Oklahoma Baptist in the Great American Conference tournament. As for Southern Nazarene, they find themselves in a three-way tie with Ouachita Baptist and East Central for fourth place. Each team has one game left to play before the tournament. SNU is left with a tough matchup with the current third placed Bulldogs of Southwestern Oklahoma State. SNU won a hard-fought five-set matchup with SWOSU in Bethany earlier this season. SNU now travels to Weatherford to try and make it a season-sweep. First serve is set for 7:00 p.m. on Thursday.
