BETHANY, Okla.— Southern Nazarene returned home on Tuesday night and put on a show in the Sawyer Center, knocking off Ouachita Baptist in four sets (25-21, 14-25, 25-21, 25-12) to earn their third Great American Conference win of the season.
Southern Nazarene (8-9, 3-3 GAC) used a full team effort to pull out the win. Multiple role players for the Storm stepped up late in the match and helped SNU pull away from Ouachita (10-8, 3-3 GAC).
The Storm were sensational at the service line as they came away with 10 service aces in the match. Madeline Lynch and Whitney Bowie led the charge in that department as each notched 3 aces in the match.
Ouachita seemed to be in control of set one as they took multiple five point leads, but SNU kept charging back. After trailing 19-15, the Crimson Storm rattled off 9 of the next 10 points to take a commanding 24-20 lead. The run featured a string of three straight Sunny Batschelett kills. She totaled a game-high 16 kills in the match.
Set two was the outlier in the match as suddenly SNU could not get anything to go their way. They hit just .03% in the set while Ouachita countered with an incredibly efficient .364 hitting percentage. The big blow came when the Tigers scored 7 straight points to lead 14-6. The Storm never recovered as Ouachita cruised to a 25-14 win in set two.
The Tigers seemed to maintain the momentum early in the third set as they quickly jumped out to a 5-1 lead. SNU slowly battled back, though, and finally grabbed their first lead of the set at 15-14. The teams then went back-and-forth and eventually found themselves tied at 21. Another Sunny Batschelett trio of kills finally helped SNU pull away as they scored the final four points of the set to win 25-21.
Leading 2-1 in the match, Southern Nazarene was determined to finish the match off in four sets. They never trailed and easily took the fourth game 25-12. They finished it off in style as Madeline Lynch secured her third ace of the match to seal the win.
Along with Batschelett's 16 kills, Whitney Bowie and Tessa Henry also secured double-digit kills with 12 a piece. Bowie has been in double-digits for kills in seven of her last eight matches.
Maddy Booth also supplied some fire power off the bench, collecting 5 kills in her two sets of action.
Bailey Grimes was a force at the net with 5 blocks and 4 kills.
The back-end of SNU's defense was strong all night. Madeline Lynch led the team with 20 digs, while Tatum Smith and Kaley Brubaker added 14 and 12, respectively.
Breckynn Myers and Peyton Parsons helped out with 8 digs a piece.
Brubaker also added 47 assists to notch her seventh double-double of the season.
It is a quick turnaround for the Crimson Storm who will host Henderson State tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 p.m. In the lone meeting last season, Henderson State swept the Crimson Storm in Arkansas. SNU will look for their revenge tomorrow afternoon. Tipoff is set for 4:00 p.m. inside the Sawyer Center.
