WICHITA, Kan.—Southern Nazarene got back into the win column on Tuesday night after cruising to a three-set road sweep (25-23, 25-11, 25-21) over Newman University.
Coming into the game, the Crimson Storm (7-9, 2-3 GAC) had not earned a sweep since September 2 when they defeated Emporia State in three sets. SNU was able to find their groove once again on Tuesday as they hit .309 while limiting Newman (7-9, 2-4 MIAA) to just a .074 hitting percentage.
Set one was the tightest game of the evening. The Storm led by four points on multiple occasions but were unable to pull away. After SNU took a 24-20 lead, Newman fended off set point three straight times to bring the score to 24-23. Southern Nazarene finally ended the game on Tessa Henry's fifth kill of the set.
Newman was completely outmatched in game two. After SNU built a 14-9 lead, the Storm rattled off 11 of the next 13 points to cruise to a 25-11 win in set two. They hit .417 as a team in the game and were led by Sunny Batschelett's six kills. She finished with a game-high 13 kills.
The Jets regrouped a bit in the third set and found themselves within a point at 19-18, but SNU refused to allow the game to be pushed to a fourth set. They scored six of the final nine points to win set three 25-21.
Shantalle Demirjian finished with 9 kills, while Whitney Bowie and Tessa Henry each added 7. Bowie also came away with 4 blocks.
Kaley Brubaker finished with 36 assists. She is averaging nearly 11 assists per set in her last 5 games.
A major career milestone was also met in the match as Madeline Lynch surpassed 1,000 career digs. Her 16 in the match now give her 1,003 for her sensational career.
Southern Nazarene will look to ride the momentum of Tuesday's non-conference match into Thursday and Friday as they return to GAC play and host Ouachita Baptist and Henderson State. First serve with Ouachita Baptist is set for Thursday at 6:00 p.m. They will then turn around and square off with Henderson State on Friday at 4:00 p.m.
