SE Tops NWOSU for Fifth-Straight Win

DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern stretched its winning streak to five matches on Tuesday night with a 3-0 defeat of Northwestern Oklahoma State in Bloomer Sullivan Gymnasium.
 
The win is the fifth in-a-row and the sixth in the last seven matches, and lifts the Savage Storm to 11-17 overall on the year and 6-7 in Great American Conference play heading into Thursday night's 7 p.m. home matchup against Southern Nazarene.
 
"We have been practicing that every day," said head coach Brianna barry, "To maintain our momentum in these really key matches toward the end of the season. It was a little shaky in the beginning, but finding that momentum and being able to keep it going into that second set. This is a tough team. We knew that they were going to come through and try and find that momentum as much as they can. I'm really proud of my girls and the way we stuck to it and won in three today."
 
"I think for us," she continued, "The girls are realizing what they need to do to win. Right now, these are the key matches we need going into the conference tournament."
 
Alissa Benson turned in the third-best mark for assists in a three set match in SE history as she finished with 45 assists in the match and moved to within 13 assists of matching former Arkansas Tech setter Amber Cerrillos for the career assist record in the GAC.
 
Benson added four digs and a block in the effort.
 
Abby Jameson and Arianna Baker got the majority of those sets as Jameson turned in 17 kills to lead all attackers, while Baker was right behind with 14. Jaclyn Menner was just short of double-digits with nine.
 
Defensively Caitlin Cosby finished with 16 digs and led the defense, while Kristi Carter and Grace Shehadeh came off the bench to add nine each while Jameson and Menner chipped in eight apiece.
 
Jameson led the net defense with four blocks on the match, while Baker and Hallie Smith added three each.
 
The Storm trailed through much of the first set and were down two when a Smith kill triggered a 9-1 run which upended the momentum and put SE up 24-19 en route to a 25-22 win in the set.
 
Southeastern took the lead early in set two and fought off a number of NWOSU rallies, the last when the Rangers erased a late SE lead to tie the set at 24-24, but a Baker kill would put the Storm back out to set point and SE would win the set 26-24 for a 2-0 match lead.
 
The Rangers scored the first two points of the third set, but the Storm answered in a big way with a 13-3 run to open up a 13-5 lead in the early going. NWOSU would rally again to within three-points at 23-20, but back-to-back kills from Baker and Jameson would seal the set 25-20 and the match at 3-0.