Box Score

BETHANY, Okla. – The Southern Arkansas volleyball team hit the road for the final time this regular season as they traveled to Bethany, Okla. to take on Southern Nazarene on Friday afternoon. Southern Nazarene would defend their home court as they downed SAU 3-1.
 
The opening set went in favor of the Crimson Storm (20-9, 10-2 GAC) by a score of 25-15. Helping SNU to the win in that set was their service game as they collected five service aces in that set alone. For the match, SNU would total 14 service aces.
 
The Lady Muleriders (15-14, 5-7 GAC) would battle back, however, to win a tightly-played second set by a score of 25-22. In that set, the two teams would play to nine tie scores and take the lead on separate occasions.
 
Set three was an intense back-and-forth affair as there were 16 tie scored and six lead changes. In that set, the Lady Muleriders would fall behind early 4-1, but a four-point run gave them their first lead of the set, 5-4. Later on, with the set knotted at 12-all, each team, starting with the Crimson Storm, would go on a four-point run to deadlock action at 16-all.
 
After SNU broke a 23-all tie to serve for the set, SAU's Cambria Martin hammered home a kill to tie the set at 24-all. An attack error by SNU's Taylor Jacobs gave the Lady Muleriders the chance to serve for the set win. Three unanswered points by the Crimson Storm, however, broke SAU's serve and gave SNU the win, 27-25.
 
Set four was not as closely played as the Crimson Storm ripped off a 9-2 run to start the set. From there, the Crimson Storm would maintain a large lead as they eventually closed out the match with a 25-11 win in the fourth set.
 
Statistically, the Lady Muleriders would total 50 kills with Hailey McNee hammering home the most with 14. Courtney Geesing and Amanda Monge were next on the team with nine kills each. Monge had the highest attack percentage with a .381 effort against SNU. Setter Gabby Clark paced the offense with 37 of the team's 44 assists.
 
Defensively, the Lady Muleriders totaled six blocks (all assisted) and came away with 72 digs. 38 of those digs went to senior libero Lauren Woods, who set a career-high with that total.
 
The Lady Muleriders will now head home for their final two matches of the regular season as they will play host to Arkansas-Monticello and Arkansas Tech during that stretch. UAM is first on the schedule as the Lady Muleriders will take on the Cotton Blossoms on Tuesday, November 12. First-serve is set for 7 p.m. in the W.T. Watson Center.