RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. — Southern Nazarene overcomes a two-game skid after picking up the road sweep over Arkansas Tech, tallying their third GAC win this season.
The Storm (11-6, 3-3 GAC) dominated across the boards Friday evening, with a whopping eight blocks compared to the Golden Suns' (1-14, 1-5 GAC) lone one block. The SNU defense also posed as a problem for Arkansas Tech who committed a total of 21 errors in the match.
SNU's winning mentality started early in the match, taking control midway through the opening set and never settling. The Storm exploded for an 8-0 run after being neck-and-neck with the Golden Suns early, working all the way up to a 17-8 lead to force ATU to take a timeout. SNU's dominance proved to be too much for Arkansas Tech as they committed numerous errors late and could not stop the offensive fire of
Rayanna Mauldin who powered down the last two kills to give SNU the 25-16 set 1 win.
The Golden Suns challenged the Storm in set 2, keeping the gap much closer. The Storm worked with a five-point lead for a lot of the set, until rounds of kills from the Golden Suns allowed them to tie the set at 17-17. A few Tech errors gave SNU some breathing room late in the set and the Storm led 22-19. After a Tech timeout, the Golden Suns came within two, but kills from Mauldin and Kayley Brubaker served ATU another loss with a final set 2 score of 25-21.
The Storm kept Arkansas Tech at a distance early in set 3, leading by as many as three early on. The Golden Suns took advantage of a few Storm errors to stay within two points at the halfway mark. Kills from
Sunny Batschelett,
Tessa Henry, and
Tynaa Mojica and an ace from Brubaker pushed SNU to a six-point lead and Tech was forced to take another timeout. Trailing 22-16, the Golden Suns could never organize their offense and the Storm finished them off, 25-16, to get the sweep and their third GAC win of the year.
Henry and Mauldin reached tallied 11 kills on the night. Brubaker led in assists with 34.
SNU will be back in action Saturday, October 7th as they take on Harding at 2 p.m in Searcy, Arkansas. SNU is currently 2-8 against the Bisons since their first meeting back in 2012.
