DURANT, Okla. – Senior
Emily Gentle turned in a huge double-double with match highs of 14 kills and 26 digs and Southeastern sent its five seniors out with a 3-1 win over Ouachita Baptist in the home finale on Saturday afternoon in Bloomer Sullivan Gymnasium.
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 16-12 overall on the year and 9-3 in Great American Conference play with the team still a half-game behind Harding and Southern Nazarene for second place.
SE also locked up a winning season with the victory, the first since a 22-14 mark in the 2009 season.
Gentle turned in her 12
th double-double of the year with 14 kills and 26 digs while also adding three blocks.
Every senior had a solid outing in their final home game, with
Madelynne Cera turning in a double-double of her own with 24 assists and 14 digs, while
Courtney Miller posted 18 digs,
Ariel Sanders added eight kills and five blocks, while
Kelsey Zerkel picked up 17 digs.
On offense, Gentle was joined by
Megan Kunkel and
Julia Benford who each added 13 kills, while
Alissa Benson added 19 assists.
Defensively, five players ended up in double-digits with digs, led by the 26 from Gentle with Cera, Miller, Kunkel, and Zerkel each finishing with 14 or more.
SE finished with nine team blocks, led by the five from Sanders, while Kunkel added four and Gentle three.
After dropping the first set 25-23, the Storm answered with two runs of five or more points in the second set to take control and pick up a 25-20 win to even the match at 1-1.
After OBU jumped ahead early in the third set, but SE answered with a pair of four-point runs to get back in the match and managed to outscore the Tigers 10-6 over the final 16 points to pull out the 25-23 win and take a 2-1 lead.
Again OBU got off to a good start, but again the Storm used big runs to take over the match, this time getting nine straight points to turn a 10-6 deficit into a 14-10 lead before hanging on for the 25-20 win to clinch the match.
