BETHANY, Okla. — Southern Nazarene put on quite the show inside the Sawyer Center Tuesday night, taking a short break from conference play to host Cameron University where they defeated the Aggies in three straight sets.
The Storm (14-8, 4-5 GAC) had already defeated the Aggies (4-18, 1-7 LSC) once before, this season, at Fort Hays' Tiger Classic in Hays, Kansas. SNU recorded two sweeps that weekend, one of those being against Cameron, where they dominated the Aggies in all three sets.
Both squads answered one another in the early part of set 1, but SNU caught a burst of energy and delivered five straight points, forcing Cameron to take their first timeout of the night. Sunny Batschelett could not be stopped at the net, powering down three straight kills to put the Storm ahead by seven. From there, the Aggies outscored the Storm 6-2 to close the gap down to 17-14 and head coach Kevin Ingram took a timeout of his own to reorganize his group.
The Aggies put up a good fight the rest of the way, but back-to-back service aces from Katelyn Branson sealed the deal for the Storm, winning the first set 25-19 to start the match 1-0.
The Aggies changed their pace and broke out an early 9-5 lead before SNU kicked off their comeback run. After answering a few Aggie points, SNU exploded for a 5-0 run to cut the gap to 12-11. The teams traded points from there, and SNU took back the lead after a Breckynn Myers kill and an Aggie error, getting ahead 20-19.
SNU continued to keep the distance and were the first to reach match point, just one point above Cameron. Whitney Bowie erased the chance of Cameron staying in the set, delivering a kill to win set 2 for the Storm, 25-23.
The Aggies made it a more difficult matchup in set 3 early on, breaking out a 5-0 run to lead SNU 8-4. Later, SNU dished out a 5-0 run of their own to knot the score up at 8-all. Cameron continued to add intensity to their offense and defense and maintained a small lead until the Storm exploded on their side of the net. SNU went on an offensive rampage, outscoring the Aggies 11-1 before Cameron had to take time.
Now with the potent 20-12 lead, SNU took care of business in the final possessions, ultimately snatching the 25-13 win for the sweep over Cameron.
Batschelett led the attack party with 14 kills and Rayanna Mauldin followed with 10.
Brubaker tallied 33 assists while Myers and Madeline Lynch each recorded 18 digs.
Up Next
Southern Nazarene will head to Arkansas to resume GAC play starting with Ouachita Baptist on Friday, Oct 20th and then a meeting with Henderson State the following Saturday. First serve is a 4 p.m. on Friday and 2 p.m. on Saturday.
