BETHANY, Okla.—For the first time this season, Southern Nazarene was unable to get a win inside the Sawyer Center as they fell in four sets (25-17, 20-25, 25-21, 25-23) to East Central on Tuesday night.

Southern Nazarene (6-8, 2-2 GAC) had a chance to take each set, but East Central (6-10, 2-2 GAC) put together a great match at the net to earn the road win. They finished with 54 kills and just 15 errors in the match, while also dominating defensively with 12 total blocks. Five different Tigers finished with at least 3 block assists in the match.

The Tigers quickly built a lead in the first set after a 4-0 burst pushed them in front 7-4. They never trailed again in the set, swelling the lead as much as eight points and taking a 25-18 win in set one.

SNU won their only game in the second set. They used a nice 7-1 run midway through the game to jump in front 14-9. East Central fought back though, closing the gap within one point, but two ECU set errors and another ECU ball-handling error helped SNU to a 25-20 game two win.

The Crimson Storm again built a lead in the third set, but were unable to hang on this time. After leading 14-10, they gave up runs of 5-0 and 6-0 that allowed the Tigers to take control of the match at 2-1.

The Crimson Storm seemed primed to force a fifth set as they were in great position with a 20-14 lead. Things quickly unraveled for the Storm though, when East Central scored eight of the next nine points and took a 22-21 lead. SNU never recovered from that run as ECU walked away with a match sealing 25-23 set four win.

Shantalle Demirijian finished with a team-high 14 kills. She has 30 kills in her last two matches and is averaging over 3.5 kills per set in Great American Conference play.

Whitney Bowie finished with 10 kills, her fifth consecutive match with double-digit kills.

Kaley Brubaker totaled 36 assists to go along with 8 digs and 4 kills.

Madeline Lynch once again secured 19 digs, matching a season-high. She is averaging 4.29 digs per set in conference play and has totaled double-digit digs in 11 of SNU's 14 matches this season.

Southern Nazarene is back on the road on Thursday for the short trip to Shawnee to take on rival Oklahoma Baptist. The Bison have won the last six matchups between the two teams. First serve is set for 7:00 p.m. in Shawnee.